


Your Plans Can Change

by calcliffbas



Series: White Lotus Zuko [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bonding, Book 2: Earth (Avatar), Coming of Age, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Identity Reveal, Minor Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Minor Sokka/Suki, One-sided Aang/Katara (Avatar), Order of the White Lotus, POV Multiple, Secret Identity, Sokka & Zuko (Avatar) Friendship, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:53:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29683563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calcliffbas/pseuds/calcliffbas
Summary: The Gaang are making their way through the Earth Kingdom to look for an earthbending master, but it’s no easy task when Princess Azula is after them. As Aang struggles with keeping the balance, and Zuko struggles with keeping his secrets, how long will it be before the cracks begin to show?
Relationships: Aang & Zuko (Avatar), Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Iroh
Series: White Lotus Zuko [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1983037
Comments: 82
Kudos: 196





	1. Chapter 1

If you’d told Sokka before he got to the North Pole that they’d find someone there even grumpier than Zuko, he’d have laughed at you and said that such a thing was impossible. But after the past few months – wherein his baby sister had gotten the Avatar out of cold storage, he’d experienced being kidnapped by a spirit, and he’d managed to make friends with said Zuko (formerly the Prince of the Fire Nation, formerly the Blue Spirit) – Sokka should probably have learnt that impossible was just a dumb word.

And, whilst he was on the subject of _impossible_ , his girlfriend had turned into the moon. What the _slush_.

And so, on the face of it, finding a grumpy old bastard at the North Pole wasn’t actually the oddest experience Sokka had endured over the past couple of months. Didn’t mean he had to like it, though. Or that he had to like Master Pakku, either.

“I’m just saying,” he complained to Zuko, currently the second-grumpiest person he knew. “Katara got some magic fancy Spirit Water, Aang got those waterbending scrolls, and I got a ‘Take care, son’. What am I supposed to do with that, huh?”

“I didn’t even get _that_ ,” Zuko muttered.

“You wouldn’t even want it,” Sokka pointed out. He was about to put Zuko back as the number-one grumpiest person he knew.

“That’s not the point. At least when I got all that stuff from the pirates, _everyone_ got something.”

“No, they didn’t,” Sokka reminded him indignantly. “You got Katara her scroll, and I got that boomerang, but _I_ was the one who had to give Aang two copper pieces!”

“You didn’t get yourself anything, either, Zuko,” Katara pointed out.

“Uh,” Sokka said hastily. “Yeah, he did.”

Zuko frowned. “I did?”

“Yeah, buddy, you did.” Sokka gave him a meaningful look. “You were wearing those black clothes when we picked you up, remember? The ones we _hadn’t seen you in before?_ ”

Zuko coughed. “Oh, right. Yeah, but I, uh, yeah. They don’t count.”

Sokka took another moment to question how he, Katara and Aang had managed to miss that Zuko was the freaking _Blue Spirit_ when he’d literally screwed up ‘hiding the fact he was a firebender’ in less than a day.

“Well, it was still pretty nice of Master Pakku to give us at least _one_ present,” Katara said diplomatically. “That’s a good way to send us off to the Earth Kingdom. And I guess it makes up for all the times he wasn’t sure whether he was meant to be treating me as a boy or a girl, too.”

“It’ll be good to be back in the Earth Kingdom,” Sokka agreed, setting his hands behind his head as he leaned back against Appa’s saddle. He thought Katara was being pretty generous when she called Pakku _nice_.

“The good old Earth Kingdom,” Zuko muttered. “Where the worst thing a firebender has to worry about is frying pans, and not giant fish monsters.”

Sokka cringed. “Uh, I was actually thinking of how it’s where presents are distributed sensibly, and how even when warrior girls can kick your butt, they’re still girls. But the lack of giant fish monsters is a perk too, I guess.”

“There’s the unagi,” Katara pointed out. “On Kyoshi Island.”

Sokka sighed. “The universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn’t it?”

“Well,” Zuko grunted, “At least the unagi doesn’t just kill any firebenders on sight.”

“The Fire Nation attacked the Northern Water Tribe, Zuko,” Katara reminded their friend. “I know it’s not – you know, I know you’re not happy about it. But Aang had to do that, otherwise they would have won.”

Zuko sighed, and looked over to where Aang was sitting on Appa’s head. “Yeah. I know.”

Sokka knew Katara wasn’t _trying_ to poke at an open wound, but he probably had to talk to her at some point. So he did what usually worked.

“Hey, Aang?” He called.

Aang turned his head and gave him an inquisitive look. “Yeah, Sokka?”

“You want some lychee nuts?”

The Avatar’s weirdly-big ears kind of perked up like Momo’s. “Yeah!”

Sokka gave Zuko another look. “Go and get Aang some lychee nuts, buddy?”

“Fuck off, Sokka,” he grumbled. Yep, back to the number one spot. “ _You_ asked him –”

“I _know_ you didn’t just say that to my brother,” Katara said sweetly. Her fingers were on the cork of her waterskin, and Zuko wasn’t the only one who reflexively tensed.

Katara had gotten _scarily_ good with that water whip under Pakku’s tutelage.

“Alright, alright,” Zuko heaved a sigh and crawled over to their bags. “Jeez, Sokka was _right_.”

“Not that I’m disagreeing,” Sokka said. “But, uh, about what, exactly?”

“I miss the Earth Kingdom, too,” Zuko answered as he gathered up a handful of lychee nuts. He grabbed a sticky bun for good measure, and _great_ , now Sokka wanted a sticky bun. “Where the worst thing a firebender has to worry about is frying pans.”

“Not angry water monsters?” Sokka asked.

Zuko scoffed. “They’re the one holding the frying pan.”

“Hey!” Katara smacked him in the shoulder as he moved past to go sit with Aang. “You said it was a giant fish monster!”

“Blame Sokka,” he called back before he offered Aang his handful of nuts. Aang smiled at him, and Zuko responded with a nod before they turned to face the ocean below them.

Sokka braced himself as if for a fight before turning to Katara. “You know Zuko still cares about the Fire Nation, right?”

“I know that,” she answered, immediately defensive. “I just don’t _get_ it. They attacked the North Pole, and he’s acting sad about how Aang saved us. I don’t care if it’s an ocean spirit or anything else, what matters is that we’re _safe_. And I don’t get why he’s acting so upset about that!”

“He’s not upset about what _Aang_ did,” Sokka explained, although to tell the truth, he wasn’t entirely sure about that.

“He’s not _just_ upset about what Aang did,” he amended. “He’s upset about what _he_ did.”

Katara looked confused, and Sokka sighed.

“In the Spirit Oasis?” He reminded her. “When he fought Zhao?”

“But he was doing the right thing,” Katara insisted. “That’s what he’s all about, he said that’s his _goal_ – why’s he upset about doing the right thing?”

“Because he had to choose between doing the right thing and his home.” Sokka jerked his head over to where Aang and Zuko were sitting, two bald heads side by side. “He didn’t shave his head because he _wanted_ to, ‘Tara. He’s dishonored now, because he fought against the Fire Nation. But he still cares, so – just don’t be so hard on him, okay?”

Katara was still looking over at the two boys sitting up front. Like Sokka, she was probably wondering if she’d be able to spot the difference without Aang’s tattoos.

“I’m not going to be mad at him because he cares about his home, Sokka,” she said eventually.

Sokka figured that was good enough. He wasn’t sure if there was anything else he wanted to talk about.

“You want a sticky bun?” He asked hopefully. If Katara wanted one too, he wouldn’t need to feel guilty about eating so soon after lunch.

She shook her head. “I’m okay, thanks.”

 _Slush_. “Aang?” He called. “Sticky bun?”

“I’m good thanks, Sokka!”

 _Double slush_.

“Zuko?” He asked, feeling a vague edge of desperation. “Hey, buddy, you want a sticky bun?”

Zuko didn’t respond, which Sokka thought was pretty rude of him. He sat back with a huff and sulked. He would have thought it was _impossible_ to be this hungry.

…

Aang munched happily on his lychee nuts, before bending one into the air in front of him. He made it hover there before gently steering it to nudge against the side of Zuko’s face, just bumping against his jaw. He would probably have done it against the side of his head if it was Sokka, but Zuko had his big scar there, and he didn’t want to make him mad.

But Zuko had been really quiet recently, and Aang thought that even though Sokka always thought this was really annoying, he always _told_ Aang that. So maybe if he annoyed Zuko with his little lychee nut, Zuko would talk a bit more.

He tried to keep his eyes looking forward and only bend the lychee nut with his fingers, just like Zuko had always taught him to do with his marbles, acorns, and pebbles. He called it his M-A-P trick when he spun them all round together, but it wouldn’t sound as cool if he added lychee nuts. M-A-P-L didn’t have quite the same ring to it. He could call it L-A-M-P, though.

“I’ll give you half the sticky buns I’ve got left if you quit dicking around with that fruit, Aang.”

It worked! Aang turned to Zuko with a smile, happy that his friend was back to his old, grumpy, fun-hating self. “What about if you give me _all_ your sticky buns?”

Zuko heaved a deep sigh and batted the lychee nut away. “Do it to Sokka, and I’ll consider it.”

Aang could work with that. He could probably annoy Sokka with LAMP when they landed at the Earth Kingdom base Pakku had sent them off to. “Have you met General Fong before?”

“No,” Zuko shook his head.

Aang considered it. Zuko was usually pretty happy to talk about his Uncle. “Has your Uncle Iroh met him?”

“Maybe.” Zuko gave a small shrug. “He was in the army, so he probably saw him at some point.”

The fact that Zuko’s Uncle Iroh had been in the army had been really surprising to Aang. When he’d met him in Omashu, he’d seemed really nice, and he’d made good tea. Aang couldn’t imagine that old guy being super violent.

“Do you think he ever drank some random forest tea?” He joked.

“Aang, what are you doing?” Zuko asked, turning to face him. It still looked weird to see Zuko without all that hair.

“What?” Aang tried to laugh it off. “I’m not doing anything.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you –” Zuko broke off, and turned back to face the horizon. His burn scar was really big. “That’s General Fong’s base up ahead.”

Aang could see it too, but he pointed it out to Appa so that he could try and move their conversation on from how super awkward it was becoming.

Zuko sighed. “I’m sorry, Aang.”

Aang wasn’t sure he’d heard that right. “What?”

“I’m sorry,” Zuko repeated. “I didn’t mean to get mad at you. I’m just – today’s a bad day.”

“Do you mean, like, in general?” Aang tried to remember what bad days were in the early days of the second month. “Or, like, just today? I didn’t mean to spill that waterskin over your bag earlier. I’m really sorry.”

“The bag’s fine, Aang.” Zuko leaned forward and rested his chin in his hand. “And, no, today’s not a bad day in general. You don’t have to do any Avatar spirit stuff to sort _today_ out.”

After what had happened at the North Pole, Aang wasn’t sure if he _wanted_ to do any Avatar spirit stuff. Or any Avatar Spirit stuff, either.

Maybe this was one of those things that Sokka would say Aang shouldn’t ask about. But he wouldn’t really _know_ unless he asked.

“Is it a bad day for you?” He asked tentatively.

Zuko was quiet for a long time, and Aang got a bit worried that he’d asked the wrong question.

This always happened! Either he asked Zuko about his scar, or he asked if Zuko was pregnant, or he asked if Zuko was _sure_ he’d meant to fly to Makapu or if they could just fly somewhere else. That last time, Aang had gotten captured at an army base and the Blue Spirit had had to break him out. He hoped things wouldn’t be quite so crazy at General Fong’s base this time around.

“I was banished three years ago today.”

“Oh.” Aang felt really sorry for Zuko then. He knew Zuko didn’t like talking about how the Fire Nation had told him he wasn’t welcome, and how much he missed his home.

“Everyone thought I was without honor,” Zuko said flatly. “My father. My sister. The Nation. And now it’s three years on, and I’m right back where I started. The only difference is that Uncle’s not around this time.”

“That’s not true,” Aang tried to reassure him. “Things are different now! And I know your Uncle isn’t here, and you probably miss his weird teas, but you’re not alone, Zuko. You’ve got us, you’ve got me – you’ve got Katara and Sokka, too!”

He gave Zuko a smile. After their rocky start, Zuko and Sokka seemed to have become really good friends. And Aang couldn’t imagine _anyone_ not feeling better when Katara was around.

The monks had always said that the more you cared for the happiness of others, the greater your own sense of well-being became. Katara cared so much about making other happy, and Aang hoped that Zuko was happy around her, because that would make Katara happy, too.

“I tried to do the right thing and ended up dishonored, Aang,” Zuko replied bluntly. “That’s pretty much exactly how it happened the first time round, too.”

Aang wasn’t sure how to talk to Zuko about this. He didn’t really know much about how the Fire Nation made such a big deal about honor. When Aang and the other monks shaved their heads, they did it as an act of humility, but they were always happy to do it because it brought them closer to their true selves. But Zuko was acting like having to shave his head was a bad thing.

“My friend Samten lived in an Earth Kingdom village,” he said. “And when he came to the Air Temple, he had to shave his head. But he said he was okay with that, because in his village, shaving your head was a sign that you were leaving behind your childhood and beginning your journey into adulthood.”

Zuko seemed to consider that, which made Aang feel a bit better about talking to his friend.

“When I joined you in Omashu,” Zuko said in his rough voice. “Someone wished me luck on our journey to the North Pole. And I remember thinking about how I don’t believe in luck. But I know a lot about the journey.”

Aang wasn’t really sure what to say about that, so he offered Zuko a lychee nut.

He shook his head. “Thanks. But I’m okay.”

“Okay,” Aang repeated. They were approaching General Fong’s base now, and he concentrated on guiding Appa down.

…

_Lee_ , Zuko reflected with no little annoyance. The exploits of the Avatar had spread across the Earth Kingdom over the past few months, and he was still _Lee_. General Fong had welcomed Avatar Aang and his companions as great heroes – Appa, Momo, brave Sokka, the mighty Katara… and _Lee_.

It seemed that he wasn’t going to be getting _any_ honor today. But he was getting the feeling that if General Fong were to find him honorable, it would be as bad as Zhao or Bujing.

“Avatar Aang, we were all amazed at the stories of how you singlehandedly wiped out an entire Fire Navy fleet at the North Pole,” Fong was saying, stroking his beard as he spoke.

Zuko could almost _feel_ the way Sokka and Katara shared a glance beside him, but he kept his eyes looking forward.

“I can't imagine what it feels like to wield such devastating power,” Fong continued. “It's an awesome responsibility.”

“I try not to think about it too much,” Aang answered. Zuko could understand that.

“Avatar,” Fong told him steadily. “You're ready to face the Fire Lord now.”

“What?” Aang said in shock, echoing Zuko’s thoughts exactly. “No, I'm not!”

“He’s right,” Zuko said brusquely, glaring at Fong. “He’s not.”

The Fire Lord would _incinerate_ Aang, he thought viciously.

“Aang still needs to master all four elements,” Katara explained.

“Why?” Fong asked bluntly. “With the kind of power he possesses; power enough to destroy hundreds of battleships in a matter of minutes – he could defeat the Fire Lord now!”

“But, sir,” Sokka interjected, “The thing is, Aang can only do those things when he's in the Avatar State.”

Aang nodded vigorously. “See, it's this special state where –”

“I'm well aware!” Fong snapped.

For all that Fong seemed to comprehend the basic principle of the Avatar State, Zuko doubted that he was aware _at all_. He seemed intent on using the Avatar State as a means of striking at the Fire Nation.

“But I don't know how to get in or out of the Avatar State,” Aang protested. “Much less what to do once I'm there!”

“So, it's decided then,” Fong stated with confidence. “I'll help you figure out how to get into the Avatar State, and then you'll face your destiny.”

“No!” Katara said indignantly. “Nothing's decided! We already have a plan – Aang's pursuing his destiny his way.”

“And you don’t get to decide that destiny for him,” Zuko added coldly. He’d been thirteen when his destiny had been given to him. It had taken him over a year to realize the truth.

“Well, while you take your time learning the elements, the war goes on,” Fong answered, gesturing to the infirmary, where injured soldiers recuperated. _The lucky ones_ , Fong called them. If that was luck, Zuko didn’t want it.

Zuko had been banished three years ago, and he had no doubt the Fire Lord had been looking for an excuse to get rid of him. _Lucky to be born_ , he’d called him. When Zuko had spoken out against Bujing’s battleplan, it was just the opportunity his father had been looking for.

Zuko looked out at the soldiers, and wondered how many Fire Nation soldiers had been sacrificed to Bujing’s plans. How many soldiers Zhao had taken to the North Pole, only to die in foreign waters.

“Aang,” he said later that evening. “I think you should take Fong up on his offer.”

Katara looked angry at him for voicing his opinion, but he hadn’t spoken out of turn.

“Aang’s supposed to be learning earthbending,” she reminded him as if he’d forgotten. “Not getting side-tracked by some – some jerk!”

“When have we _not_ been side-tracked?” Sokka asked. Quite reasonably, in Zuko’s opinion.

“I don’t like Fong either, Katara,” he explained. “But he’s right. The sooner the war ends, the better.”

“Yeah,” Sokka agreed. “Aang needs to learn earthbending, but after… what happened at the North Pole? You need to learn how to control the Avatar State, buddy.”

Aang looked a little scared at the prospect, but Katara folded her arms stubbornly.

“What happened at the North Pole?” She repeated. “What are you talking about? Aang _saved_ the North Pole! Without the Avatar State, the North would have been _melted!_ ”

“I’m not saying the Avatar State is a bad thing, Katara,” Sokka retorted. “I’m just saying that learning how to use it is a _good_ thing. And he’s already admitted to Fong that he _doesn’t_ know how to use it.”

“The plan was to get to Omashu, and learn earthbending,” Katara argued. “I don’t see why Fong wants to do something different.”

“Your Uncle _did_ say that it was a bad idea for mortals to mess with the spirits,” Aang said, glancing at Zuko. “I don’t know – if I’m the Avatar, shouldn’t I master the elements before I try and mess with the Avatar stuff?”

“I think that question became moot when you fused with the ocean spirit,” Zuko tried to keep his voice calm.

“Are you saying that was a bad idea?” Katara asked aggressively.

“I don’t _know_ ,” Zuko replied as honestly as he could. “I’m not sure.”

“But that’s our point, Katara,” Sokka tried to smooth things over. “If Aang’s dealing with the spirits, he needs to know what he’s dealing with. I don’t know how things could have gone differently at the North Pole, but…”

He swallowed, and coughed a few times. “It might go better next time if he knows what he’s doing.”

Aang looked down at his feet, and Katara looked _furious_. Zuko and Sokka shared a guilty look.

“Aang,” Zuko began, unsure as to whether he should try and channel his Uncle Iroh right now. “If you don’t want to learn from Fong, we’ll go on to meet Bumi. I said he doesn’t get to decide for you, and I meant it. We all do.”

Sokka nodded, and Katara put a hand on Aang’s shoulder.

“Whatever you decide,” she told him. “We’ll stick with it.”

Aang looked a little less like he was going to cry, and Zuko let out a sigh of relief. Sokka looked a lot less nervous, too – clearly, he hadn’t been the only one completely terrified of Katara’s wrath.

“If we stayed with Fong,” Aang said slowly, glancing between Sokka and Katara. “How long would we have to stay?”

“We wouldn’t have to stay long,” Katara reassured him. Sokka and Zuko exchanged a glance. “If you wanted to leave at any time, we can just go on to Omashu as soon as you want.”

“Won’t that make Fong mad?” Aang mumbled.

“Fong can suck it,” Sokka said bluntly. “Buddy, you know what we want. But what do you want?”

Uncle had asked Zuko something similar once, he remembered.

A look of determination passed over Aang’s face, and Zuko felt his inner fire roar with approval. He hoped that his own face had looked something like that, when he’d given Uncle his answer.

“I’ll go and talk to Fong,” Aang said. “I’ll help him by going into the Avatar State.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ‘The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes.’ – [Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tenzin_Gyatso,_14th_Dalai_Lama).
> 
> Aang’s story about his friend Samten is based on traditional Thai culture, explored in further detail by atlaculture in [this Tumblr post](https://atlaculture.tumblr.com/post/631877003253022720/cultural-anatomy-zukos-book-1-hair).


	2. Chapter 2

So far, General Fong had tried to induce the Avatar State in Aang through a whole variety of ways including, but not limited to: _chi_ -enhancing tea, surprise therapy, wearing ceremonial garments, and another round of _chi_ -enhancing tea. Katara had thought watching Aang race around the base on his air scooter had been bad the first time round, but then he had gotten the bright idea of doing it whilst juggling his marbles, pebbles and acorns, _plus_ some lychee nuts he’d added into his routine.

“I love lamp! I love lamp!” He chanted frantically as he zoomed around the room. “Is it working? Is it working? I can't tell! Somebody tell me if I'm in the Avatar State, ‘cause I don't have a good view of myself! Am I talking too loud?”

Zuko groaned from where he had given up and laid down on the floor. Although Katara was still trying to keep an eye on Aang, she had to secretly agree.

“I guess he could talk the Fire Lord to death?” Sokka suggested, which Katara thought was a little bit on the optimistic side.

“I think I’d rather deal with the fish monster,” Zuko muttered.

The way Zuko seemed to be so _belittling_ towards what Aang had done really rubbed Katara up the wrong way. Aang was the Avatar, and it was his duty as the Spirit Bridge to protect the balance. In combining his power with that of La, the Ocean, he’d gathered the ocean’s incredible power and used it against the Fire Nation – okay, that was Zuko’s home, and Katara could appreciate that. But just because it was his home, that didn’t make it right! Jeong Jeong had understood that, so why was Zuko still so annoyed at Aang?

But if Aang had done something like that to the Water Tribes…

 _No_ , Katara shook her head, dismissing the thought. The Water Tribes were built on love, and community, and family. They wouldn’t _ever_ do anything as awful as the Fire Nation had done. The firebenders were all about power.

But that was what Zuko was trying to do here; help Aang control the Avatar’s power. And Katara couldn’t pretend that she hadn’t found it really scary when Aang had merged with La and become the gigantic spirit presence. He was her best friend, but all of his kindness and compassion had seemed to be stripped away from him as he overturned ships and sent them down into the depths.

If Aang had done something like that to the Water Tribes, it would have been her Dad out on the boats – Dad, or Bato, or _Sokka_. She knew Zuko was banished, but… he must have known people in the Fire Nation, right?

She just couldn’t understand why he couldn’t see why what Aang had been doing was _right_. He’d done what he had needed to do – that was basically what Sokka had said about Zuko!

“We’ve already been trying this for a day,” she complained. “When are we going to move on to Omashu?”

“We’ve _only_ been trying this for a day,” Sokka replied. “But if they try anything else that makes Aang turn out _that_ annoying, I’m packing Appa up myself.”

“Even half that,” Zuko bargained. “He gets _half_ as annoying, and we’re out of here.”

“Half as annoying as _lamp_?” Sokka scoffed. “Buddy, that spells L-A. _La_. That’s kind of the whole reason we’re here in the first place.”

“But we don’t need to be here,” Katara said angrily. “We’re here because you two are too focused on what Aang can do!”

Sokka looked at her disbelievingly. “What, and you think being able to wipe out a fleet of Fire Navy ships in a couple of minutes is just something we should _skip over_ when we focus on stuff?”

“Aang’s the _Avatar_ ,” she countered stubbornly. “But he’s also _twelve years old_. You’re putting him under too much pressure!”

Zuko made a funny noise, and that was enough to make her turn towards him.

“And you’re not making any sense!” She accused him. “You’re mad at him for sinking the Fire Nation fleet, but now you want him to attack the Fire Nation with Fong! What, you want him to attack your _home?_ ”

“I want him to learn how to control the Avatar State,” Zuko responded with a scowl. “Fire is a powerful element, but you’ve got to control it –”

“The Avatar isn’t a _fire_ spirit!” Katara shouted. “You don’t get to make Aang into a little firebending Avatar, he’s twelve years old and an _airbender!_ Air’s the element of freedom, and you should let him be _free!_ ”

She didn’t want Aang to be here, she realized suddenly. She wanted to take him away from Fong, and from everyone else who wanted to make him into someone he wasn’t.

She got up from her seat, and walked out to the balcony where Aang seemed to have calmed down.

“Can we talk about something?” She asked.

Aang looked a little tired after all of that. “Sure.”

He’d had a really full day, Katara thought, checking his face with a critical eye. It had seemed like everyone had wanted him everywhere all the time, and he’d looked so confused at half the things they’d been making him do. In fairness, Katara would have been feeling pretty confused if someone had mixed water and dirt in an empty bowl and heated it up a little, before throwing it all over her.

“Do you remember when we were at the air temple and you found Monk Gyatso's skeleton?” She asked softly. She didn’t want to upset him, but she wanted him to try and understand. “It must have been so horrible and traumatic for you. I saw you get so upset that you weren't even you anymore.”

Just like when he had let La vent their rage on the Fire Nation and wipe out those ships…

“I'm not saying the Avatar State doesn't have incredible and helpful power,” she continued. “But you have to understand. For the people who love you, watching you be in that much rage and pain is really scary.”

Aang nodded. “I'm really glad you told me that,” he told her simply. “But I still need to do this.”

_What?_

Katara looked at him in shock. “I don't understand.”

She wanted to tell him that he didn’t _need_ to do anything. He was the Avatar! He didn’t need to do what people told him! And he was only a boy – what were Sokka and Zuko _thinking_ , trying to get him to learn how to fight the Fire Nation?

“No, you don't,” Aang said quietly. “Every day, more and more people die. I'm already one hundred years late. Defeating the Fire Lord is the only way to stop this war. I have to try it.”

Katara wanted to tell him that he wasn’t a hundred years late. The spirits had made it happen this way for a reason. If the war could have been stopped, then her mother… it _had_ to have been this way.

“I can't watch you do this to yourself,” she told him firmly, before turning to leave. “I'm not coming tomorrow.”

…

Sokka sighed as he saw Katara leave. His little sister was fierce, but… he wondered sometimes if she was aiming her water whips at the right people.

“At least she didn’t get the frying pan out,” he offered, but he knew it was probably scant consolation.

Judging from the look Zuko gave him, he wasn’t being very consoling at all.

“I’m just trying to point out the silver lining,” he muttered.

“I got absolutely hammered just after my fifteenth birthday,” Zuko said apropos of nothing. “I can’t actually remember any of it.”

Sokka wasn’t sure where this was going, or what it had to do with what just happened, but he was _definitely_ down for hearing about drunk Zuko. “Don’t tell me you had another fake wedding to that Mai girl.”

“I was banished, remember?” Zuko glared at him. _Oh, right. Yeah_. “She wasn’t there.”

“How about Taki, then?” Sokka asked, recalling the no-nonsense sailor who could knock the teacup out of Jee’s unharmed hand with a throwing knife at thirty feet.

Zuko pulled a face. “Agni, that’d be even worse,” he muttered. “But – yeah. Uncle woke me up the next morning, and told me about how I’d been going on about a silver sandwich.”

“A silver sandwich,” Sokka repeated in a deadpan voice. “Like, a sandwich with a silver-colored filling? Or… a sandwich, made out of silver?”

“Yeah, I don’t know, either,” Zuko acknowledged. “But he told me I was saying stuff like – clouds have two sides, right? There’s a dark side and a light side, and a silver lining in between. Like a silver sandwich.”

Sokka shook his head. He _did_ like food, but that was a bit of a weird one. “I thought your Uncle was the kooky one.”

“Whatever,” Zuko mumbled. “I was just talking.”

Sokka sighed, and looked out at where Katara was standing on the balcony with Aang. “Looks like they’re talking, too.”

“Probably trying to convince him to quit,” Zuko said. “Can’t say I blame her.”

“What?” Sokka turned to look back at him. “I thought this was your idea!”

“Our idea,” Zuko pointed out. “But she can’t be mad at _you_ for it. And like she said, I’m Fire Nation. And she doesn’t like the Fire Nation. Obviously.”

He looked a bit sad about that.

Sokka remembered that his Dad had always said that if you hate something, you’re letting it have control over you. Dad had never _hated_ the Fire Nation, even though they took Mom away. Because he would never let the Fire Nation control the Water Tribe.

“She just really loves our home,” Sokka defended his sister. He didn’t want to say that maybe Katara didn’t know the difference between loving the Water Tribe and hating the Fire Nation, because that would sound like he was talking smack about his sister. And he would _never_ do that.

Besides, Sokka thought that for Katara, they might have been two sides of the same coin. She protected people, but you couldn’t do that unless people needed protecting.

“I know that, okay?” Zuko sighed. “I get that. I _get_ that. But… just because the Fire Nation was wrong, that doesn’t mean – like, Uncle was there. Who else was there, you know?”

“I know there were casualties,” Sokka said quietly. “But what else could Aang do?”

“That’s just it, Sokka,” he shook his head. “I don’t see how there was anything else Aang could have done. But it doesn’t make it any easier.”

“You didn’t have any other choice either,” Sokka reminded him.

“I did. I could have just – not fought. Or maybe I _could_ have fought,” Zuko added, turning away and looking to his left. Sokka couldn’t see his scar, when he sat like that. “That might have been easier.”

“But you don’t want to do something just because it’s the easy thing,” Sokka pointed out. “The right thing to do can be really difficult, sometimes.”

Zuko slowly shook his head. “I guess so,” he agreed quietly. “It can be hard, but – you can’t give up. I just hope we’re doing the right thing by Aang, right now.”

“He has to learn how to control this stuff,” Sokka argued, resigning himself to another argument where he had to figure out how to lead some _very_ different people. “He _needs_ to, Zuko. Otherwise, what happens if the Ocean Spirit gets pissed off at someone who doesn’t deserve it?”

The Moon Spirit held back the ocean, Sokka remembered with a pang. It hurt to think of Yue, but… it was who she was. She made the strong feel weak for her, and they would do _anything_ for her. To think that Yue could make the spirits want to please her was – it wasn’t even surprising to Sokka. She was just that kind of girl.

“Aang needs to be where he’s needed the most,” he repeated the wisdom his Dad had always offered him. “Right now, he needs to learn how to master the Avatar State. That’s what we’re here for.”

“I’m not disagreeing with that,” Zuko let out another deep sigh. “Aang has responsibilities – he’s the _Avatar_. I know he’s not a firebender, but – but he can’t _just_ be an airbender. He can’t just be free to do whatever he wants, however he wants. He can’t just – just lie to people at the Great Divide.”

 _Or hide the map to my Dad_ , Sokka thought, still a bit sour even now. But he figured that complaining about people who omitted certain details to _Zuko_ (former Prince, former Blue Spirit) would be a bit like complaining to the polar bear dog about how the tiger seal wanted to eat you.

“Good luck explaining that to Katara,” he said instead, a little bit grumpily. Maybe Zuko was rubbing off on him. “She thinks the sun shines out of his bony airbender butt.”

“Oh, but Sokka,” Zuko replied, more than just a bit sarcastically. “Aang’s not a firebender, remember? He _can’t_ be involved with the sun!”

Sokka groaned and slid down until he was laying back on the floor. “I liked it better in the Earth Kingdom _before_ we went to the North Pole.”

“Me, too,” Zuko agreed, before frowning. “Up until I got kidnapped, that is.”

Sokka snorted, glad that the mood was lightening. “Yeah, that part was pretty stupid of you.”

“How’s it my fault if I’m being kidnapped?”

“Sorry, buddy,” Sokka said, with no hint or intention of an apology in his voice. “Most of what went wrong was your fault, so I just assumed…”

“If anything is anyone’s fault, it’s Bumi’s,” Zuko muttered. “Kooky old bastard.”

On that, at least, he and Sokka were in full agreement.

…

General Fong kept using these really weird methods to try and unlock the Avatar State, but none of them had been working. Aang was wondering if _any_ of them were going to work, but he kind of hoped they didn’t. Especially that _chi_ -enhancing tea. Zuko had once told Aang about this time his Uncle had found some random plant in an Earth Kingdom forest and tried to make some tea out of it, and accidentally poisoned himself.

Aang wasn’t sure whether General Fong knew where that forest was, but that _chi_ -enhancing tea was _disgusting_. If he had to drink that _chi_ -enhancing tea to unlock the Avatar State, he’d – well, Katara got mad when he used bad language. But he was sure Sokka or Zuko would know what to tell General Fong!

General Fong was _all about_ Aang being the Avatar, he thought to himself in irritation. And it wasn’t in a nice way, like how Katara always told him that he brought people hope, and that just because he was the Avatar didn’t mean the other kids should have excluded him from their games at the Southern Air Temple, and that just because he had disappeared for a hundred years didn’t mean that she was mad at him or thought any less of him. It was in a really impatient way that made Aang think Fong was looking for him to be a certain kind of Avatar, but that he was disappointed in Aang because he wasn’t that Avatar.

The first place in the Earth Kingdom Aang had visited after he had woken up from the iceberg had been Kyoshi Island, and even though they’d literally been named after Avatar Kyoshi, they’d been really happy to see him. They hadn’t been disappointed in him because he wasn’t Avatar Kyoshi! All the girls had liked talking with him – or at least, they had until they’d gotten bored of his marbles trick, but now that he’d added acorns, pebbles and now _lychee nuts_ to the routine, they’d probably be excited to see it again. And they’d let him ride the elephant koi and the unagi, too!

And then he’d gone to Omashu with Katara and Sokka, and they’d met Bumi, who’d never minded if Aang was the Avatar or not – he’d just been happy to be Aang’s friend, and Aang had always been Bumi’s friend. They’d had a great time riding the mail chutes. And Aang had met Zuko in Omashu as well, and although Zuko wasn’t much fun, he’d listened when Aang had talked about the elephant koi, and he’d taught him some cool stuff for LAMP.

Aang got the feeling that if he started talking about the elephant koi and the unagi to General Fong, he wouldn’t be very impressed. He’d probably say something like _how will LAMP help you activate the Avatar State, not-a-very-good-Avatar Aang?_

He sighed. He just wasn’t very sure what to do, and Zuko usually had good ideas about Avatar stuff like this. He’d helped Aang figure out how to talk to Hei Bai and Avatar Roku, and he’d helped him figure out how to fuse with the Dark Water Spirit at the North Pole. Even if Aang still wasn’t sure about whether that had been a good thing, he probably wouldn’t have been able to do it without Zuko.

So he went told Zuko that he wasn’t sure if he liked General Fong, because he wasn’t sure if General Fong liked him. He kept acting like Aang wasn’t a good Avatar, just because he wasn’t going into the Avatar State like Fong wanted him too.

Zuko frowned. “Just because it takes time doesn’t mean you won’t get it, Aang.”

“But what if I don’t get it?” Aang asked, a little nervous about what Zuko would say in response.

“You will,” he said simply. “But I don’t want you to feel pressure, Aang. Fong seems like a really strict guy.”

“He is,” Aang agreed. “He kept talking about how his earthbending instructors used to make him break boulders with his head to toughen him up!”

Zuko had said that probably explained a lot about General Fong, and they’d had a bit of a laugh. But then he’d turned serious again.

“I had some really strict firebending tutors when I was younger,” he told Aang. “And I really struggled. I only got good after Uncle Iroh took over my training. If Fong’s not the right teacher for you, that’s not a problem.”

Aang wasn’t sure if the problem was with Fong or the problem was with him.

“What if it’s not Fong’s fault?” He asked quietly. “What if it’s my fault, because I’m not the Avatar he wants me to be?”

Zuko got a really weird look on his face then. It was like he was angry and sad and determined all at once.

“You get to decide what kind of Avatar you want to be, Aang,” he said. “Remember what I said to Fong? He doesn’t get to decide your destiny for you. _You_ do. And if it’s different to what he wants you to be, it’s not on you to change for him.”

Aang thought about that for a moment. He wasn’t Avatar Kyoshi, who everyone on Kyoshi Island had said had been really capable, and he wasn’t Avatar Roku, who had always seemed to be really wise. He was just Aang. But if Aang got to decide what his destiny was, he wouldn’t have to worry about being remembered as the Not-A-Very-Good-Avatar Aang, or Avatar Aang the Loser, or even the Freakishly Small Avatar Aang (Who Had Huge Ears).

He went to talk to Sokka after that. It was a bit late, so he had to wake Sokka up. This was a serious conversation, so he’d decided not to wake him up with what Zuko called his cold current trick.

“Whuzzgoinon?” Sokka mumbled sleepily as Aang woke him up.

“I don't think we should be trying to bring on the Avatar State,” he said bravely.

“You sure?” Sokka asked.

Aang said he was sure, and Sokka said okay. Huh. He’d thought Sokka would need a lot more convincing than that.

“Do you think the general will be mad?” He asked.

“What can he say?” Sokka shrugged, already getting comfortable again in his bed. “You're the Avatar – who knows better than you? Fong can suck it.”

So Aang had gone with Zuko to talk to General Fong, and told him that he wasn’t going to try and induce the Avatar State anymore.

“The thing is, I don't think we'll ever be able to trigger it on purpose,” he explained. “So I guess that's it.”

“And you’re sure I can't change your mind?” General Fong asked.

“I'm sure,” Aang said respectfully. “I can only reach the Avatar State when I'm in genuine danger,” he added, making sure Fong understood the situation.

“I see,” Fong agreed. Aang smiled – he knew Fong would understand! Just like Sokka, he’d needed less convincing than Aang had thought he would.

But then Fong said _I was afraid you'd say that_ in this really weird voice and blasted his desk at Aang.

_Monkeyfeathers!_

General Fong could suck it!


	3. Chapter 3

Sokka had been dreaming about living in a giant lychee nut in the sky when Zuko burst into the room with a _bang_ that woke him up.

“Yo!” He sat upright with a speed that yanked on his spine. “What’s happening?”

“Fong’s trying to kill Aang!” Zuko informed him promptly. “Wake Katara up, and let’s go!”

He was out of the door again before Sokka could react, and Katara was waking up and rubbing her eyes.

“Was that Zuko?” She asked groggily. “What’s he doing at the South Pole?”

“The general's gone crazy,” Sokka repeated Zuko’s words as he hastily dragged his shirt over his head. “He's trying to force Aang into the Avatar State!”

He was pretty sure that’s what they’d been trying _yesterday_ , but Zuko hadn’t looked quite so frantic back then. As he and Katara ran down the stairway to the bottom of the tower, Sokka threw his boomerang at one of the earthbenders.

 _Boo-yah_ , he cheered inwardly as it knocked him down. _Water Tribe!_

Fong was sending a whole bunch of rock coins at Aang, for whatever reason, but Aang was dodging out of the way and trying to keep off the ground. Sokka took one look at the scene, then glanced at Katara, who nodded. As Water Tribe siblings, they knew what to do.

Katara managed to water whip a soldier and send him toppling off his ostrich-horse, and Sokka swung up onto it. Zuko had grabbed a spear and was fighting two earthbenders in the far corner, but Fong was still going after Aang.

Sokka yelled as he geed up the ostrich-horse and charged for Fong. He was still bending rock coins at Aang, but he paused before Sokka could get there.

“Maybe you can avoid me,” he called out to Aang. “But she can't!”

_She?_

Oh, slush.

“Katara!” Sokka yelled. He urged the ostrich-horse to the left and it turned in a wide circle, squawking at the way he was digging his heel into its side.

“Sorry, buddy,” he muttered. “But this is kind of important!”

“I can’t move!” Katara cried out. She was halfway sunk into the ground – that bastard Fong must have bent the earth around her and made her fall in!

“Don't hurt her!” Aang yelled.

Sokka’s baby sister sunk further into the ground.

He had to protect her. He’d made a promise to his Dad. He had to protect her.

“Katara, no!”

Sokka thought he could hear Zuko shouting, but Fong’s voice was loud enough to carry over the courtyard.

“You could save her if you were in the Avatar State!”

 _That bastard_.

Sokka yelled out in shock as the ostrich-horse jerked to a halt. He crashed over onto the ground, and tumbled forward. As he groaned, he could see the ostrich-horse flapping its wings and squawking, its feet locked into place in the earth.

“Aang!” Katara cried out. “I’m sinking!”

She sunk further into the ground.

 _Sokka had to protect her_.

“I don't see glowing!”

Sokka crawled along on his elbows and knees.

 _He made a promise_.

“You don’t have to do this!”

Sokka thought that Aang sounded like a twelve-year-old kid.

 _Katara, he had to protect Katara_.

“Apparently, I do.”

Katara was _gone_.

Before Sokka could _scream_ , the wind picked up and sent him skidding back across the courtyard.

 _Oh, slush_.

Aang’s tattoos were glowing, and he made a chopping motion to blast Fong backwards onto the ground. Sokka watched open-mouthed as he rose up into the air in a twisting spiral of air currents.

Aang was going to destroy the base. If they didn’t get Katara out of the ground, he’d bring this whole place down around her.

“We have to calm him down!” Zuko yelled. With the wind howling around them, Sokka had to read his lips to get _exactly_ what he was saying, but he got the general gist of it.

“How?” He shouted back. A groaning sound came from behind them, followed by a large crash.

Zuko didn’t have any answer, it seemed, because he just stared helplessly up at Aang.

Sokka didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t get near Aang; the winds were too strong, and he was thirty feet in the air. He couldn’t get to Katara – he wasn’t even a _bender_ , let alone an earthbender. He couldn’t help her, he couldn’t save her –

 _He couldn’t protect her_ , he realized numbly.

“ _Katara!_ ” He screamed.

“Avatar Aang!” General Fong bellowed. “Can you hear me? Your friend is safe!”

Katara was safe, Sokka saw with _relief_. She was okay. The earthbenders had brought her back out.

“It was just a trick to trigger the Avatar State,” Fong shouted in triumph. “And it worked!”

But it didn’t seem like Aang was listening. He drove the whirlwind down and landed on the ground so forcefully that he sent a rippling wave of dust out in every direction.

Suddenly, his tattoos flashed brilliant white and then dulled to blue. He slumped to the ground, and Sokka could barely react before Zuko was off, racing towards him. He could see Katara hurrying towards the Avatar as well.

Zuko was fast, but Katara was on a mission. She reached Aang several full seconds before Zuko and flung her arms around him. _Oof_ , Aang was in for a whole load of fussing tonight. Probably extra helpings of dinner, too.

Sokka wasn’t going to be getting extra portions, he thought to himself grumpily. It was the irritation brought on by that realization that saw him mount one of the spooked ostrich-horses and ride over to Fong, who _just was not shutting up_.

“That was almost perfect!” He cheered, like a complete _dick_. “We just have to find out a way to control you when you're like that!”

“You’re out of your mind!” Aang shouted back, glaring at Fong. He was barely standing up on his own, and Zuko was crouching with an arm around him to support him.

“I guess we'll figure it out on the way to the Fire Nation,” Fong commented, and _okay, that was it_. Sokka swung his club and caught Fong in the head with a satisfying _clonk_.

“Anybody got a problem with that?” He asked aggressively. Pretty much _all_ the soldiers shook their heads. _Good_.

“Do you still want an escort to Omashu?” One of the soldiers asked, looking like he didn’t really want to know the answer one way or the other.

“I think we're all set,” Katara said angrily. At least after all this, Sokka could agree with his sister on _that_.

…

Aang had already been fast asleep when Zuko set him down in Appa’s saddle, and when Sokka had asked him if there were any places nearby he thought would be safe, he’d just shrugged. As long as they got away from Fong and his madness, he didn’t particularly care where they got to.

Aang slept pretty much the whole journey, and Zuko and Katara sat with him. Katara had checked him over with her healing abilities, but Zuko hadn’t been able to do anything like that. All he’d managed to do was get him onto Appa.

And all he’d managed to do before that was almost get Katara killed, and treat Aang just like Bujing and Zhao would have done. Fong hadn’t been trying to help Aang control the Avatar State at all. He’d just been trying to control _Aang_.

“I’ll make dinner,” he told Katara when Sokka set them down in the shadow of a cliff face.

“Are you sure?” She asked. It seemed that however angry she had been at him earlier, she was more focused on making sure Aang was okay.

Making sure Aang was okay was Zuko’s priority as well, but he was angry enough at himself for both of them.

“I’m sure,” he muttered.

By the time he had finished making the noodles, Aang had woken up. Zuko made sure he had an extra helping of dumplings; they had plenty of supplies after Fong’s men had sent them on their way with apologies, and Zuko intended to make the most of them.

“Thanks, Zuko,” Aang said as he took his bowl of noodles soup and vegetarian dumplings. He’d been munching on a couple of kale cookies Katara had insisted on feeding him earlier, and Zuko was relieved to see he was looking a little better.

He hesitated, but he couldn’t just _not_ say it. Aang had almost certainly been uncomfortable when they’d been talking on the way to Fong’s base, but he’d still tried to make things right. Zuko owed him that, at least.

“I’m sorry for what happened, Aang,” he said sincerely.

Aang swallowed a mouthful of noodles and looked at him confusedly. “For what? You didn’t put Katara in the ground.”

Zuko had been so worried when Katara had disappeared that he’d almost started firebending. Only the control Uncle Iroh had taught him had prevented him.

It wasn’t the kind of control Fong had wanted to teach Aang, he realized now.

“I’m sorry for pushing you to learn to control the Avatar State,” he apologized. “And I shouldn’t have pushed you to go and meet with Fong.”

He swallowed, but he needed to make this right. He kept his eyes on Aang as he knelt down in the dirt as he would to a master he had wronged.

“Fong’s all about power,” he continued, “Fire’s the element of power, so I should have known that Fong wasn’t interested in helping you control your power – he just wanted to control you. And I’m sorry for treating you like the Avatar instead of Aang. You’re not just something we can use to help us win. You’re a person, and you matter to us.”

He remembered how Bujing had talked about the soldiers in the Forty-First Battalion. _Fresh meat_ , he’d called them.

He bent over and pressed his hands flat to the dirt, and touched his forehead to the earth.

“I’m sorry, Aang,” he repeated, and closed his eyes and exhaled.

For a few moments, as the back of his neck burned with shame, and he remembered another time he had knelt down before someone he had disrespected.

Zuko wondered whether another Fire Lord would have challenged Bujing, and not a thirteen-year-old boy.

“Um, Zuko?” Aang said. “You can – you can get up, now.”

Zuko raised his head and sat back on his feet in _seiza_ -style formality.

Aang shook his head. “No, I mean, like – you can just be normal again, now. This is really weird.”

“Yeah,” Sokka agreed, but Katara gave him a look.

Aang looked hard into his bowl of noodles, and pursed his lips. When he spoke again, he kept looking at the bowl.

“When I merged with the Ocean Spirit at the Spirit Oasis, I thought it was because the Dark Water Spirit was calling me.”

 _The Dark Water Spirit_ , Zuko thought faintly. _Of course_.

He was going to _kill_ Bumi.

“And I didn’t know what to do – not just about the invasion, and the moon, but _how_ to do anything about it. But I remembered what you were saying, about how air is the element of freedom, and I just thought – there wasn’t any reason why I _couldn’t_ step into the Spirit Oasis, so I…”

“You just did it,” Zuko finished softly.

“I just did it,” Aang agreed quietly. “Because if I couldn’t _not_ do it, then… why couldn’t I do it?”

Katara put her arm around Aang’s shoulders, and Zuko took the risk of moving a little closer to Aang, so he could crouch down in front of him and look at him.

Aang swallowed as he met Zuko’s gaze with his clear, gray eyes.

“I just wanted it to be easy,” he whispered, his voice catching as he swallowed hard. “But I really messed up.”

Zuko didn’t say anything for a little while as Aang closed his eyes and hiccupped. A few tears dripped into his noodles stew.

“You don’t have to worry about the Dark Water Spirit anymore,” he told Aang once he thought the worst of the crying was over, and Aang was leaning back into Katara’s shoulder. “Okay?”

The Blue Spirit had been a mask for Zuko when he fought the Fire Nation. But he’d fought them face to face, now. He’d made his choice, and he could let it go.

“And you don’t have to worry about what Fong wanted to teach you, either,” he continued. “He just wanted an easy way to control the Avatar State.”

“It was wrong,” Katara spoke up. Her voice was quiet, but firm. Her thumb didn’t pause as she rubbed it back and forth over Aang’s shoulder.

“It was wrong,” Zuko agreed. “It was cruel, and it was wrong, and I’m sorry. Okay?”

“Okay,” Aang managed. He sniffled a little and rubbed his nose. “Okay. Yeah.”

“And figuring out the Avatar State isn’t going to be easy.”

“I’m sorry,” Aang offered, but Zuko shook his head. He took the bowl of noodles from Aang, and bent a little heat into it.

“But if we’ve learnt one thing,” he kept his voice carefully steady for Aang. “It’s that doing the right thing isn’t always easy. But we have to keep trying, even when it’s hard.”

He handed the bowl back to Aang, and carefully kept his hands on it until it was settled safely on his knees.

“You want to go to Omashu?” Katara asked him quietly.

Aang took a few deep breaths. “Yeah.”

Zuko glanced at Sokka, who nodded.

“If you want, I’ll ride the mail chutes with you,” he said.

Aang let out a surprised laugh, and he counted it as a win. “You’re not that fun, Hotman.”

“I’m not,” Zuko agreed. “But – I owe you. So this is how you know my apology was sincere.”

“You must be really sorry,” Aang breathed out. Zuko was happy to see a little disbelieving grin.

Katara nudged him. “If you want, he and Sokka will do it blindfolded.”

Aang laughed, and, well, he really _was_ sorry, so even if Sokka was flatly refusing, Zuko let it slide.

…

Katara had seen Aang go into the Avatar State before, so she knew how much it took out of him. He managed to make his way through another bowl and a bit of Zuko’s noodles soup before his eyelids started to droop.

“I’ve gotcha, buddy,” Sokka murmured, helping him over to his sleeping bag. He kicked it a little closer to the fire before he settled him down. “Come on, Wolf Kit – that’s it, in you get…”

Katara smiled a little at how gentle her big brother was with Aang. He’d deny it until he was blue in the face if she called him out on it, but he really did care about him. Which reminded her…

“Thank you for apologizing to Aang,” she told Zuko quietly.

He was very obviously not looking at her as he made a small firebending gesture to make the campfire a little warmer. “I needed to say it.”

“I think he needed to hear it,” she offered. “To know that we’re all on his side.”

Zuko looked over at Aang, all wrapped up in his sleeping bag, an extra blanket, and now a couple of Zuko’s spare shirts that Sokka was draping over the pile. She thought he was making a little pout, but she didn’t want to point it out. Sokka used to get huffy if she pointed out stuff that was _unmanly_.

“I think I owe you an apology, too,” Zuko’s voice was hesitant.

She blinked in surprise. “Um – what?”

She was pretty sure _she_ was the one who had yelled at Zuko and told him that he was a bad person for wanting Aang to attack their home. She’d known he hadn’t meant it like that, too, which probably made what she’d said even _worse_.

“You were right,” Zuko said quietly. He was twisting his hands together and flexing his fingers, but he kept his golden eyes on her. “I was thinking of Aang like he’s a firebender. He’s not, and the Avatar isn’t meant to be just one element. I’m sorry if you thought I was trying to – I don’t know. Make him something he’s not.”

“Oh,” Katara said. She resisted the urge to fiddle with her own hands where they lay in her lap. “Well, uh – apology accepted.”

Zuko gave her a small smile, and took a deep breath. “But Aang’s not just an airbender,” he continued, nervously glancing at her all the time. “He’s a waterbender, too. And he’ll be an earthbender, and a firebender, too. He can’t just be free – the Avatar has responsibilities. Like the Avatar State.”

Katara knew that. She knew that if Aang had such incredible powers, he had them for a reason. He had to use them for the right reasons. Like she did, bending to protect the people she loved. Or Zuko, using his bending to do the right thing. They didn’t always succeed, but… they tried, at least.

“I know you were just trying to help Aang with his responsibilities,” she said quietly, hoping Zuko recognized it as the peace offering it was. “I just wish he didn’t _have_ those responsibilities.”

Aang was only twelve years old, she thought again as she saw his peaceful face where he lay sleeping. She wanted him to be free to go penguin sledding without worrying about getting to the North Pole, and to go riding on the mail chutes without worrying about running late for an earthbending class.

“I do, too,” Zuko murmured. “When you know what you’re meant to be, you can be so eager to fulfil those responsibilities and make people proud of you that you… it can be really hard.”

Katara had been the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe from the moment she had bent her mother’s cooking stew in a fit of pique at three years old. For as long as she could remember, she’d wanted to be a waterbender that showed that the people of the South Pole were _strong_.

But then after – after _Mom_ , she’d had to be there for her family. She’d needed to help Gran-Gran cook, clean, and mend, and Gran-Gran wasn’t as young as she’d used to be. Katara had still been a waterbender, but she couldn’t practice her bending _and_ help with dinner at the same time.

“I don’t know how to help him,” she confessed lowly. “He’s the Avatar, but I don’t know what that _means_. My grandmother used to tell me stories about how the Avatar kept the balance, and they always brought me hope. But I don’t know how to help him with that.”

“Sometimes, you need to let someone work it out for themselves,” Zuko told her. “My – my Uncle. When I was banished, he, uh. He could have tried to do everything for me, but he gave me time to sort it out by myself. He was just – he was there for me. And sometimes, that’s enough.”

Katara remembered how she had reacted after they’d left the Fire Temple, when she’d found out that Zuko had been banished.

 _You mean the Fire Nation didn’t_ want _you?_

“I’m sorry I said those things to you about your country,” Katara blurted out before she could stop herself. “I know you’re not – you don’t hate your home.”

“I don’t,” Zuko agreed, looking into the fire. His pale face was yellow in the dancing flames, except for his scar, which was a deep, dark reddish-brown. She still found it strange to see Zuko’s new look; he’d looked a lot better when he’d had his hair.

But Sokka had told her that people in the Fire Nation shaved their heads as a mark of dishonor, and after Zuko fought against Zhao at the North Pole, he’d openly turned his back on his country. You couldn’t get much more dishonored than that.

“I love my Nation,” Zuko told her. “I know you don’t, and I can understand why. The war is wrong, and we have to stop the Fire Lord. But I want what's best for my country, and that means peace.”

He closed his eyes, and the campfire seemed to grow a little dimmer as he breathed. Katara rarely saw Zuko use his firebending for anything more than the menial tasks around their campsites – lighting fires and heating water. This was something else, like a deeper connection to his element.

The first time she’d _really_ seen Zuko bend was when she had been powerless in the Spirit Oasis. When he’d fought against Zhao – fought against his own countryman, for her people. He’d had to choose between his country and doing the right thing. Katara wondered again whether she would have been able to make that choice.

“We’ll probably have to stay here for a few days while Aang gets his strength back,” she told him, moving on to another question that she found easier to deal with. “Can you make breakfast tomorrow?”

Zuko looked a bit confused, either by the change of topic or the question. “Uh – I usually do?”

Oh, right. Because he was up early in the mornings. Right.

“Good,” Katara said. “That’s good, then.”

“Good,” Zuko repeated. “Uh – okay, then. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Katara said. She got to her feet and dusted off her knees, before giving him a quick nod. “And, um – good talk.”

So her exit was a little less than graceful, she thought to herself as she made herself comfortable in her sleeping bag. But she thought that apology had gone quite well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sokka and the Giant Lychee Nut is my little nod to Roald Dahl’s [James and the Giant Peach ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_and_the_Giant_Peach).


	4. Chapter 4

“Sorry, Aang,” Katara smiled, streaming the water back at her friend and giving her fingers a little _flick_ as she snapped the release. “But no matter how many times you ask, I’m not giving the mail chutes another try.”

The _flick_ gave the water a little extra impetus, and Aang had to gather the water in and stream it around his body a few times to settle it. He laughed with the sheer joy of fooling around with the water, and Katara couldn’t help but laugh along at his enthusiasm.

“Come on, Katara,” Aang implored her, giving the water back to her. “Please? Even _Zuko_ said he’d do it. And Sokka’s doing it blindfolded!”

“No, I’m not,” Sokka responded, floating along on his leaf. “I don’t care how sorry Zuko is, no way am I going on one of those deathtraps.”

“Lighten up, Sokka,” Katara told him, winking at Aang. “If Zuko’s _manly_ enough to give it a go –”

“It’s nothing to do with manliness!” Sokka raised a finger emphatically in the air. “It’s to do with common sense! And considering that’s my specialty, not to mention Zuko’s _real_ lack thereof –”

“Thanks,” Zuko interjected from the shore, where he was setting down the tent he’d been sharing with Aang.

“Buddy, what part of ‘Yeah, I’m just gonna randomly firebend in front of someone’ implies common sense?”

“That’s not my fault,” Zuko grumbled. “That’s on Bumi.”

Katara laughed at the look on Aang’s face. It was like he wanted to splash Zuko with water for not being polite about his friend, but he didn’t want Zuko to get mad at him and take back his promise to ride the mail chutes with him. She didn’t think he had to worry – the Fire Nation were apparently _very_ big on keeping their word.

She decided to do Aang a favor and bend a splash of water over Zuko for him anyway.

“And that’s on you,” she called out, giving Aang a smile.

He giggled, a high, delighted sound. “Good one, Katara!”

“Thanks, Katara,” Zuko deadpanned, scowling at her. “Really appreciate that.”

“This is what you signed up for, Zuko,” Sokka said, with absolutely no sympathy in his voice, only amusement. It gave Katara a bit of satisfaction to be the funny one for a change, even if it _was_ at someone else’s expense.

“And you also signed up for the mail chutes too, Hotman,” Aang reminded him, before turning back to Katara. “Come on, Katara, _please?_ I always had a great time riding them with Bumi and Kuzon!”

Aang’s pleading face was so convincing that Katara had to think about it just to remind herself why it probably wasn’t a good idea. Going penguin sledding had been fun, but the mail chutes? Not so much.

If memory served Katara right, her previous experience with the mail chutes had been terrifying, her previous experience with Bumi had been mixed, and her previous experience with meeting firebenders in Omashu had been – well, okay, Master Iroh had been quite nice. And although she and Zuko had gotten off to a bad start, he hadn’t turned out so bad.

But the mail chutes were _definitely_ not something Katara remembered fondly about Omashu.

She shook her head. “Sorry, Aang. It’s just not for me, I don’t think.”

“Where’s your bedroll, Sokka?” Zuko called out. “I can’t find it anywhere.”

“Oh, I stuck it in one of the bags.”

Zuko’s voice carried a note of confusion in it this time. “Which one?”

“The, uh…” Sokka let out a nervous laugh. “I think it had a cooking pot in it?”

“You put your _bedroll_ in our cooking bag?” Katara demanded, rounding on her brother. “ _Gross!_ ”

“Katara’s right, Sokka,” Aang looked a bit green. “I don’t know if I want to be eating out of something that’s touched where you’ve been sleeping.”

“I’ve slept on the ground before,” Sokka waved dismissively. “And you’re a vegetarian. Sooner or later, my sleeping germs are going to climb up a tree and end up in one of your lychee nuts.”

“Good job, Sokka,” Zuko dumped the contents of a bag out into the water, and surveyed them with a displeased air. “You guys spent all that time thinking _I_ was the biggest threat to Aang’s safety, when in fact it was _you_ all along.”

“The biggest threat to Aang’s safety is Aang,” Sokka argued.

“Hey!” Aang looked a bit offended at that.

“You burned _soup_ , Aang. And your self-preservation skills simply do not exist.”

Katara felt a bit guilty for laughing, but she mouthed _sorry_ when Aang gave her a disgruntled look.

“As far as I can see,” Sokka continued, “The only person here who isn’t a threat to Aang’s ongoing existence is Katara.”

“ _Aang’s_ personal existence, sure,” Zuko replied. “Yours and mine, though…”

“You know it, buddy,” Sokka agreed idly. “You know it.”

“Excuse me,” Katara butted in, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at Zuko. “What’s _that_ supposed to mean?”

“You literally assaulted me with a frying pan on our first night camping,” he reminded her. _Oh, right_.

She huffed and folded her arms. “That’s when I thought you were here to try and kill Aang!”

“That was a great moment,” Sokka said dreamily. “Man, what I wouldn’t give to see a repeat performance.”

“Don’t hit Zuko with that frying pan, Katara,” Aang said hastily from where he stood closer to the shore. He pointed to where it was half-submerged in the water. “It’s got Sokka’s bedroll germs all over it!”

Katara smirked at Zuko as she bent the water, pulling the frying pan over to herself before picking it up. “What do you think, Zuko? A repeat performance?”

“Aang,” Zuko said, looking very seriously at the frying pan. “If she comes after me with that, I’m not going on the mail chutes.”

“Aw – come on, Hotman, you promised –”

“Yeah, Zuko,” Sokka cackled. “You made a _promise_ , you were all, like, _I promise_ , and you promised – can’t break a promise, _Hotman_ –”

“Fuck off, Sokka, don’t call me that –”

Aang laughed out loud as Katara drew on the water, and sent it towards both Sokka _and_ Zuko. It was like the time they had been practicing, she remembered, and Aang had picked up on that wave she had been trying to push and pull, and drenched the two boys and washed all their supplies away.

She thought she could smile at the memory, now that she could _bend_.

“Ugh,” Sokka complained as he spat water out of his mouth. “You guys are going to be done soon, right? We have a lot of ground to cover if we're going to make it to Omashu today.”

“What?” Katara teased. Her brother, always the lazy-bones. “Like you're ready to go right now, naked guy?”

“I could be ready in two minutes,” Sokka drawled, pushing his hair out of his eyes. “Seriously, _whenever_.”

Katara laughed, and walked over to where Aang was practicing his octopus forms.

“Your arms are too far apart,” she told him, giving him a bit of help. She had to step behind him and reach around to position his arms.

“See?” She asked. “If you move them closer together, you protect your center. You got it?”

As Aang showed her the form with the adjustments she had offered him, she could see Zuko nod approvingly from where he was watching from the shore.

She grinned at Aang. “You make a fine octopus, pupil Aang.”

Aang made the octopus arms move in a silly dance, and she had to laugh at the goofy smile on his face.

…

Uncle Iroh had always liked music night, Zuko thought with the familiar mixture of fondness and exasperation that always accompanied his memories of Uncle. He would have loved these guys.

The nomads had come along just as Zuko was busy steaming Sokka’s bedroll dry with his firebending, and he’d had to quickly stuff it back into a bag. The _right_ bag this time, Sokka.

And although Zuko had stuck out music night, several dozen Pai Sho tournaments, and even a banquet with King Bumi, he was struggling to take these guys seriously. Of course, Aang loved the nomads, and Katara seemed to really like the idea of two lovers overcoming their differences to be together, but at least Sokka was being reasonable, and _Agni_ did Zuko not see that phrase coming.

“Are these guys for real?” He muttered in an undertone to the other boy.

“They’d probably tell you reality is, like, a _lie_ ,” Sokka muttered back.

Zuko couldn’t help the amused snort he let out. “Catchy song, though.”

“Not you too,” Sokka groaned. “You _know_ I hate it when you only say stuff to piss me off.”

“Secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel!” Chong finished, strumming his lute dramatically to finish.

Sokka cleared his throat from beside Zuko. “Thanks for the lullaby, guys. But I think we'll just stick with flying. We've dealt with the Fire Nation before. We'll be fine.”

“Yeah,” Aang agreed. “Thanks for the help, but Appa hates going underground. And we need to do whatever makes Appa most comfortable.”

Zuko didn’t really want to have to deal with the Fire Nation – that made _him_ uncomfortable. But whatever. But the decision was taken out of his hands when a flaming fireball crashed into the cliff face, only narrowly missing Appa.

 _Fire Nation_ , Zuko realized, instinctively ducking and turning to see where the attack had come from. _There_ – catapults, up on the highland!

“Secret love cave,” Sokka gabbled, quickly pushing them along in the direction of the mountain. “Let’s go!”

“Let go?” Chong repeated vaguely. “Yeah, man… gotta, like, _release_ …”

“Let’s go,” Zuko enunciated clearly. “The Fire Nation are coming. We need to move!”

Even as they tried to get to the entrance to the tunnels, though, the Fire Nation tanks were following them. Katara and Sokka had to keep rubbing Appa’s sides as Aang coaxed him into the tunnels, with Zuko bringing up the rear.

It wasn’t lost on him that if Appa reared back, the Avatar may very well have to inform Uncle Iroh that his nephew had been killed when a ten-ton bison sat on him. He hoped Sokka ended up having to be the moron who got the job of saying _that_ with an appropriately grieving face.

“It's okay, Appa,” Katara soothed the antsy bison. “We'll be fine. I hope.”

Zuko glanced at her. “Those last two words were completely unnecessary.”

“But so essential to her character,” Sokka quipped. “Buddy, we’ll be _fine._ All we need is a plan.”

Zuko tried to keep his cool. He really did. Sokka was right; they just needed a clear idea of how they were meant to reach Omashu. But as they made their way through the bewildering maze of caves and tunnels below the mountains, it fast became clear that they didn’t even have a vague idea how they were meant to do that, let alone a _clear_ one.

“All we need is a plan,” Zuko mimicked under his breath as they passed a familiar-looking rock _yet again_. “Good job I’m the plan guy! Hi guys, my name’s Sokka, and my plans _never_ end badly –”

“Hey!” Sokka rounded on him indignantly. “ _I’m_ not the guy who got kidnapped, remember? How many people have been kidnapped in these caves, huh?”

“Sokka, this is the tenth dead end you've led us to,” Katara told him resignedly.

“This doesn't make sense,” Sokka protested. “We already came through this way!”

“We don't need a map,” Chong said serenely. Zuko envied him his inner peace, if not his taste in clothing. “We just need love. The little guy knows it.”

Zuko raised an eyebrow at Aang, who blushed.

“Yeah,” he laughed nervously. “But I wouldn't mind a map also.”

As the tunnels went on, Zuko could feel himself becoming more and more agitated as his inner flame felt weakened by the oppressive darkness. Firebenders were people of the sun – they thrived in the _daylight_. Zuko had been born in midwinter, and the commonly-accepted wisdom in the Fire Nation was that a midwinter child’s inner flame would always be weaker than a child born in the height of summer. Azula had been born on the Summer Solstice, the most auspicious day of the year. She had been born lucky.

But Zuko had never wanted luck. Even at his birth, he had needed to struggle and fight. His mother hadn’t been a firebender, but she had woken him up at dawn every day, and made him meditate with a cup of _shōgayu_ tea. She’d said it had medicinal properties, and it would make him strong, but Zuko hadn’t really drunk his tea for health reasons, or to help him be a stronger bender. He’d just enjoyed sitting with his mom.

After – after she had gone, he had kept drinking _shōgayu_ to remember her. After his banishment, he had drunk it for its medicinal properties - whatever they were - to make him strong. Three years on, he still drank his tea in the mornings; sometimes, he even drank it for his own enjoyment.

He ducked his head as the tunnels groaned around him.

“The tunnels, they're a-changin',” Chong sang absently, before he stiffened. Then, he let out a low whine.

“It must be the curse!” He wailed. “I knew we shouldn't have come down here!”

“Right,” Sokka muttered. “If only we listened to you.”

“Everyone be quiet,” Katara instructed them all in a voice that made even Sokka shut up. “Listen!”

Zuko _really_ hoped that low snarl was just his imagination.

Momo let out a screech and flapped his wings as a wolfbat swept in from the darkness, all screeching and teeth and beady little eyes. But Zuko had to take back that comment about Sokka being reasonable, or in any way sensible, when he started waving his torch around at the wolfbat, and set Appa’s fur on fire. Before Zuko could put it out, Appa went wild, roaring in pain and crashing into the walls of the tunnel.

“Cave-in!” Zuko shouted, grabbing onto Sokka and hauling Chong in close. “Grab onto someone!”

He closed his eyes and tried to breath through his nose as the rocks came thundering down. He thought he heard a high-pitched cry, but he couldn’t open his eyes.

When the noise stopped, he wasn’t the only one who must have inhaled too deeply and started coughing.

“Everyone here?” He asked, trying to be heard. “Everyone okay?”

 _Everyone was here_ , he heard from the nomads. Sokka was there. Everyone except –

“Katara and Aang are on the other side of those rocks,” Sokka told him grimly, looking at the cave-in. Some of those rocks must have weighed at least a ton, and neither of them were earthbenders.

“We’re not getting through that,” Zuko breathed.

“Yeah, it's no use,” Chong said amicably. “We're separated. But at least you have us!”

Zuko glanced at Sokka. The Water Tribe boy looked just as horrified as Zuko felt.

…

Aang had quite enjoyed talking with the nomads, especially when they had so many catchy songs. He’d especially liked that one about _my instant pleasure dome_ , because it was all about how it didn’t matter where you were, because as long as you were with that special someone, you were home. It had made Aang think of Katara. But his favorite song had been that one about two lovers who had been forbidden from one another. They’d built a path to be together, and they’d called it – _secret tunnel!_

Aang wondered if there were any more verses to that song. If he could learn it, he’d be able to _really_ annoy Zuko and Sokka. It had been a bit of a shame that he and Katara been separated from the rest of the group, because he’d been about to ask Chong if they knew any other songs like that, but Aang thought this was a pretty good sign! They’d been singing a song about being with that special someone, and now Aang was with Katara! And, okay, it was in the middle of some really dark tunnels under a mountain, and there weren’t any panda lilies around or anything, but at least they were together. Aang thought that was a pretty good start.

But Katara had seemed really unhappy that they were together, and she’d been trying to dig away at the collapsed cave ceiling for a good few minutes before she gave up and told him that they needed to keep moving.

“We’ve only got a couple more torches left,” she explained, holding one up in the dark cavern. “We don’t want to run out of light.”

“That would be really bad,” Aang agreed. If they’d had Zuko with them, he would have been able to light their way with his firebending, but Aang couldn’t really be too mad that Zuko wasn’t there, not when it was just him and Katara, Besides, Aang still got a bit nervous when he saw Zuko firebending, especially after how things had gone with Jeong Jeong. He knew it was a bit irrational of him, because Zuko could control his fire, and he only _really_ used it to help Katara with the cooking, but it still kind of spooked him out.

Not as much as it spooked him when he and Katara walked down their tunnel into a tomb!

Aang had thought they’d found the exit when they came across a rock door, but when Appa barged into it and opened it for them, it hadn’t been an exit at all. It was a large, dark old space with two gigantic statues at the end of it. The statues were kneeling down and leaning towards each other, just about to kiss. It must have been incredible bending, Aang thought, to be able to shape that out of rock.

“It must be the two lovers from the legend,” he realized with a flash of inspiration. “That's who's buried here!”

Katara pointed to a series of engraved stone carvings that Aang hadn’t even noticed. “They met on top of the mountain that divided their two villages,” she read. “The villages were enemies, so they could not be together, but their love was strong and they found a way.”

Katara explained how the two lovers learned how to earthbend from badgermoles, but the man was killed in the fighting between the two villages. Instead of using her bending to take revenge, the woman declared the war over, and both villages helped her build a new city where they would live together in peace.

“The woman's name was Oma and the man's name was Shu,” Katara finished reading. “The great city was named Omashu as a monument to their love.”

She pointed to some characters that Aang could barely see in the flickering torchlight. “Love is brightest in the dark.”

Aang looked up at the two kissing statues. The story was so beautiful, but so sad. It seemed like people were _always_ fighting, and Aang sometimes wondered whether the world would ever really live in peace. He could remember when he and Kuzon had been friends, and nobody had thought it was weird or disappointing or dangerous to have friends from the other nations.

This one time, Monk Pasang had taken Aang on an educational trip to a museum in Gaoling. It had been kind of boring at points, but Aang had liked reading about Avatar Kyoshi and her girlfriend Rangi. They’d been from two different nations – Kyoshi had been from the Earth Kingdom, and she had fallen in love with Rangi, her firebending instructor from the Fire Nation – but they’d still ended up living long and happy lives together.

Aang thought it would be nice to be with Katara once the war was over. Had Oma and Shu wondered whether the fighting would end? Had they hoped their villages would be able to live in peace, or had they never believed it would happen?

And how had they even managed to find their way through the tunnels to meet each other, if they didn’t have a map and the tunnels kept changing?

“How are we going to find our way out of these tunnels?” Aang asked, looking around the tomb. Maybe there’d be a map in here – one that was more accurate than Sokka’s, at least.

Katara looked a bit weird as she looked up at the two kissing statues. “I have a crazy idea,” she said slowly.

“What?” Aang asked. He figured it couldn’t have been any crazier than General Fong’s idea to mix water and dirt and then heat it up and throw it on Aang to induce the Avatar State. He didn’t want to think about General Fong’s other ideas, though.

Katara shook her head and gave a little giggle. “Never mind. It’s too crazy.”

Aw, but now Aang _really_ wanted to know!

“Katara, what is it?” He asked, trying not to be too impatient.

“I was thinking,” Katara explained. “The curse says we'll be trapped in here forever unless we trust in love.”

Aang nodded – he’d kind of been distracted for some of their journey by humming _you’re my instant pleasure dome_ , but he remembered that part. “Right.”

“And here,” Katara continued, pointing at the engraving on the wall of the tomb, “It says, "Love is brightest in the dark," and has a picture of them kissing.”

Aang was completely lost. More lost than he’d been in the Spirit World, more lost than he’d been when he’d apparently been trying to find Makapu, more lost than that pair of Zuko’s dao swords he’d accidentally washed away down the river.

“Where are you going with this?” He asked.

“Well,” Katara said. She still had that weird look on her face. “What if we kissed?”

Yipes and yowzers!

“Um.” Aang said.

No, wait! He could say something better than that! Sokka had said being aloof worked with girls, right?

But then when he tried to be aloof and super casual, he’d ended up saying completely the wrong thing. When he’d said to Katara that he definitely wouldn’t want to kiss her, she’d thought he’d meant that he definitely wouldn’t want to kiss her. Sokka’s advice and Sokka’s sarcasm were terrible when it came to romance, and now Katara wouldn’t kiss him!

_Monkeyfeathers!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aang heard the nomads singing Billy Joel’s ‘[You're My Home](https://open.spotify.com/track/5ykU1R2EkDFfccEDqKOvvf?si=c3e0c443bc0c4e3a)’. :) No Billy Joel slander allowed in the comments section!
> 
> You can check out [Avatar Kyoshi](https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Kyoshi)'s life story on Avatar Wiki.


	5. Chapter 5

Sokka had never thought he’d miss the Spirit World, but here he was. Stuck in a series of never-ending cave tunnels with a bunch of musicians.

He’d managed to drown out the sound of ‘Don’t Let The Cave-In Get You Down, Sokka’ by trying to think of the people he’d least like to be stuck in the tunnels with. So far, he’d settled on Jet, Hahn, Zhao, and that fisherman Fuxi who’d taken him out in a storm. Honorable mentions to General Fong and Master Pakku, yeah, but they had some _strong_ competition.

Like, if Sokka could just stick those four guys in the cave system and then get out of there, that would be great. But if he had to be stuck in there with those guys? No way, buddy. He wasn’t sure if hearing Chong, Lily and Moku talk about smiles and hearts and how _even if you're lost, you can't lose the love because it's in your heart_ was any better than that. But then they’d started singing crap like _two lovers, forbidden from one another_ , and he’d just gone back to picking these guys again.

Forget Hahn, Zhao, and Fuxi – he’d spend a whole day jumping through treetops with Jet, happy as a clam, if he never had to listen to Chong, Lily and Moku talking about how _that cloud looks just like a kitten_ ever again.

“How can you see a cloud?” He rounded on Lily, shouting in frustration. “We’re _underground!_ ”

“You just got to imagine it, Brother Ponytail,” Chong answered, as frustratingly amiable as ever.

Sokka jabbed a finger at him. “I’m going to imagine my foot up your –”

“Shut up, Sokka,” Zuko interrupted wearily. “You’re only hurting yourself.”

“How would you know?” Sokka demanded. “I could hurt _you!_ ”

Zuko looked momentarily taken aback. “That doesn’t even make _sense!_ ”

Sokka had to admit that, fair enough, no, it didn’t. You know why? Because the nomads had driven him _insane_. They had him _missing_ the Spirit World. If someone from the Spirit World were to send Sokka a messenger hawk right now, with a little letter tied to its leg that said _Wish you were here_ , he would have been pretty wistful.

Sokka did _not_ want to be remembering an angry panda bear spirit picking him up bodily and charging away into a forest as _the good old days_!

“If you were going to stick one person in this cave system for the rest of time, who’d you pick?” He asked Zuko, trying to distract himself from the never-ending singing.

“Bumi,” Zuko replied after thinking it over for a bit.

Sokka could see why, yeah, but he thought that might be just a _little_ harsh on Bumi, considering the other candidates. “Really?”

“Well, he’s an earthbender,” Zuko pointed out. “So if he got bored of it, he could just bend his way out.”

“Fair point,” Sokka acknowledged as he stepped over a rock lying on the floor. “But you wouldn’t pick, like, Zhao? Or Jet?”

“Don’t tempt me,” Zuko replied, kicking the rock a little further along. He was probably picturing Bumi as he did it. “What about you?”

“Well, I was going to say Jet, but now I might pick you out of spite.”

“I’d forgotten about Jet,” Zuko said in an absent-mindedly surprised voice.

“How can you just _forget_ Jet?” Sokka demanded, keeping one eye on the singing nomads to make sure they didn’t lead them anywhere… oh, whatever. It’s not like _any_ of them knew where they were going.

“Honestly, I think I’d repressed the memories.”

“That, or that frying pan gave you brain damage.”

Zuko made an amused noise. “We did think that might be the case.”

“What?” Sokka was lost. In more ways than one. “You and Jet?”

“No, idiot,” Zuko muttered. “Me and Katara. I got hit with a frying pan – what’s your excuse?”

“Close proximity to insanity,” Sokka sighed, and allowed himself to slide a little further into the pool of self-pity. Man, that sounded like one of those things he’d seen in his fever dream in Taku. So did half the stuff Moku was coming out with.

Except those low growls were coming out of the tunnels, and decidedly _not_ from Moku.

“Oh, come on,” Zuko groaned.

Sokka could agree with him, but he didn’t have time to say so before several wolfbats came bursting out of the dark tunnels, flying straight towards them.

 _Good_. Sokka didn’t want to agree with Zuko. That jerkbending bastard had been willing to stick Sokka in an eternal maze of secret tunnels with some kooky old dude. He waved his hands and made a few swings up at the wolfbats to try and scare them off, and Zuko shouted and made a bit of noise – but the creatures just flew straight past them.

“Hey,” Chong smiled dreamily. “You saved us, Sokka!”

“ _Sokka?_ ” Zuko repeated in a disbelieving tone. Sokka was too busy ignoring that grumpy jerk to be offended.

“No,” he said slowly. “They were trying to get away from something.”

For the first time, Chong’s expression indicated something other than supremely unconcerned existential bliss. “From what?”

 _Ohhhhh man_ , Sokka had a bad feeling about this.

“Please let my instincts be having an off day,” he sighed to himself. But as the caves rumbled, the universe proved Sokka wrong by proving his instincts right, because that was the kind of day he was having.

The caves rumbled and quaked, and a whole massive chunk of the tunnel wall crumbled to the ground. Two giant… _whatevers_ crashed into the caves.

“Badgermoles!” Moku cried in delight.

Tui and La, Aang would love these big guys. Momo was enough of a pain when he kept going through Sokka’s stuff, but if Sokka had to share Appa’s saddle with a _badgermole_ , he was done.

There was only one way to scare off horrifying, terrifying monsters, and that was to find something even more horrifying and even more terrifying.

“Zuko!” He shouted, trying to avoid the badgermole's swipes. “Make a tsungi horn noise!”

“ _What?_ ”

“Make some noise!” Sokka yelped, just as the badgermole _earthbent_ a rock at him and sending him skidding backwards. As he scrambled backwards, his hand brushed over something.

 _Chong’s lute_ , he realized. Experimentally, he plucked on a couple of the strings on the lute. Yeah, okay, it wasn’t _great_ , but it was better than Zuko’s distinct _lack_ of tsungi horn.

“Hey, those things are music lovers!” Chong said this as if it was the greatest thing in the world.

Zuko let out a low curse. “You’ve got to be absolutely kooky if you think –”

“Less talking, more tsungi,” Sokka cut him off pointedly. “More tsungi!”

He fiddled about with the strings until he could get something vaguely approaching a melody going. What was it Aang always said? If he couldn’t find a reason why he couldn’t do it, that was a reason to do it?

Sokka suspected Aang had never heard Zuko trying to sound like a tsungi horn.

…

_Love is brightest in the dark_ , Katara thought to herself. And the statues had been kissing.

Katara’s parents had always been affectionate – it was probably the only reason Sokka submitted to hugs from his little sister without decrying them as _unmanly_. Well, he didn’t complain _most_ of the time, at least.

Dad had always been a hugger, and when Katara had been smaller and tried to hug him around his waist, her arms hadn’t been long enough for her fingers to touch. So her Mom had stepped up behind him, taken her hands in hers, and told her that the best hugs were _family_ hugs. It had sometimes been interesting enough for Sokka to want to join in, and those had always been Katara’s favorites.

Afterwards, Mom had always given Dad a hug of her own, leaning her forehead against Dad’s shoulder and running her fingers through his hair, and he had always looked down at her with one of those small smiles that he only rarely let out. Whenever Katara had remembered the way her Mom and her Dad loved each other, she’d known that she wanted to love her husband like that, and for him to love _her_ like that.

When Aunt Wu had told her she would marry a powerful bender, she’d hoped that they’d be tall, and handsome. But she’d also thought about how they’d be able to practice their bending together. They would be able to have fun getting better _together_ , and if her husband was a powerful bender, that would mean she would be one too, right?

Katara looked at Aang as they walked along. Sokka had said that Aang was a powerful bender, she remembered. And the travelling singers had said that the only way out of the caves was to trust in love. And love was brightest in the dark, and the statues had been kissing.

Aang wasn’t very tall, she admitted, but that might have been because he was still only twelve. He could still grow. And even though he had told her that he shaved his head, that was because it was such an important part of his culture. She couldn’t ask him to give that up, not when he was the last of his people.

Besides, _Jet_ had had long, shaggy hair, and although it had felt _amazing_ to run her fingers through it whilst they were kissing, he… yeah. Jet hadn’t been a good guy. He hadn’t understood how important her bending was to her.

But if she fell in love with a bender, he’d understand that part of her. They would treat her well. They would treat her as a _person,_ not just as someone to use for her powers.

Katara remembered how she and Aang had been practicing his octopus forms earlier. She _loved_ her bending – under Pakku’s tutelage, she had been so eager and hungry to learn that she’d become a master before they’d even left the North Pole. She’d spent hours practicing – at high noon, so she could practice her work when the moon’s pull was weakest, and at midnight, when it was strongest and she could try and work with the cold water and ice that was sometimes more difficult.

After spending so long without any hope that she would be able to control her element, let alone master it, Katara wanted to take every opportunity she could. It was true that Aang didn’t always seem interested in practicing _all_ the intricacies of a bending form with her, but that was because he liked to have fun with his bending. Just like she’d wanted to have with her husband.

And just because he was a little distractible, she told herself, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t come to appreciate how seriously she took her bending when he got a little older. He was only twelve, after all.

Aang was sweet, and kind, and he was always enthusiastic about everything she tried to do. When he’d picked up waterbending so quickly, he’d tried to help her, and she’d yelled at him. And he was the Avatar, and a powerful bender. She didn’t want to marry someone because they were _important_ , but… in the darkest times, the Avatar had given Katara hope.

 _Love is brightest in the dark_ , she thought to herself again.

Their torch was slowly dying, she noticed anxiously. She didn’t know where she was, and she didn’t have Sokka or Zuko around to help them try and find their way. Sokka would have kept trying to find a plan, and Zuko could have used his firebending to help light the way. They would have made all sorts of sarcastic, grumpy remarks, and they would have made a lot of comments about each other with a lot of swearing.

She didn’t want to think that she wasn’t ever going to see them again.

“We're going to run out of light any second now, aren't we?” Aang asked. His voice was so quiet and scared. He was only twelve years old, Katara remembered sadly.

“I think so,” she whispered. She didn’t want to have to tell Aang, but it didn’t look like they had any other option.

“Then what are we going to do?” He asked. His words carried an edge of desperation with them, like he was going to cry.

Katara stepped closer to him. If they were going to be in the darkness, she wasn’t going to let him be there alone. She took his hand as their torch flickered and died. Just as the light faded away, she could see him giving her a small smile, trying to be brave for her.

Katara didn’t want it to be like this, but – she didn’t know what other choice they had. She leaned in and bent her neck slightly, and pressed her mouth to Aang’s.

His lips were uncertain and dry, and she didn’t know what to do with her hands. She half-raised them to his shoulders, but lowered them again.

As she leaned back and opened her eyes, Aang was staring at her with an expression of shock on his green-tinged face.

 _Wait a minute_ – the roof of the caverns was glowing with a green light!

“They're made of some kind of crystal!” Aang said in amazement. “They must only light up in the dark.”

“That's how the two lovers found each other,” Katara realized. She followed the glowing crystals with her eyes and a tracing hand. “They just put out their lights and followed the crystals. That must be the way out!”

She wasn’t going to die down here! Aang was safe! She’d see Sokka and Zuko again!

Katara was so relieved, she couldn’t help but laugh and give Aang a hug.

“Let’s go!” She called back to him as she set off running for the exit.

…

As grand entrances went, Zuko knew riding out on a badgermole wasn’t quite as regal as the palanquins and finery of Fire Nation Royalty, but he felt it was pretty impressive nonetheless.

“Sokka!” Katara cried upon seeing them. “Zuko!”

“You guys made it out!” Aang looked ready to run and tackle them with hugs. Considering that he could only hug one of them at a time, Zuko hoped he picked Sokka first.

“Yeah,” he agreed, albeit unnecessarily. “So did you.”

 _Way to state the obvious_ , he acknowledged belatedly to himself.

“And you made it out first!” Sokka added.

That observation had also been rather redundant, Zuko thought. They really needed to get this conversation moving along.

“How did you make it out?” He asked curiously.

“Just like the legend said!” Aang gave them a smile. “We let love lead the way.”

Zuko looked at Sokka, who looked back at him.

“Have you been teaching him how to bullshit?” Sokka muttered lowly. “Because that sounds like something you would say back when you were the Blue Spirit.”

Instead of telling Sokka to _fuck off_ , Zuko showed great maturity in ignoring him, instead turning back to Aang and Katara.

“We let huge, ferocious beasts lead our way,” he offered.

Katara shook her head, and hugged Sokka with a smile. Great. That meant Zuko was stuck with an Aang hug.

“Why is your forehead all red?” Katara asked as she drew back from her brother. Zuko couldn’t help but snicker at the mark.

“Hey,” Chong nudged him, and beckoned Katara and Sokka closer. “Nobody react to what I'm about to tell you,” he whispered, glancing over at Aang. “I think that kid might be the Avatar!”

Sokka clapped his hand to his forehead again, and Zuko glanced at Katara. She met his eye, and he gave her a little eye-roll. She hid her smile and turned away, but he could still see her shoulders shaking with laughter.

“Are you guys coming to come to Omashu with us?” Aang asked the other nomads.

“Nope!” Moku said with a beaming smile.

Aang gave him just as a big a smile in return. “Okay! Well, thanks for everything, Moku!”

Zuko couldn’t remember if Moku had actually _done_ anything, but whatever.

“Sokka,” Chong said seriously, bestowing a ceremonial necklace of flowers around Sokka’s neck. “I hope you learned a little something about not letting the plans get in the way of the journey.”

Katara rolled her eyes at Zuko this time, and now he was the one who had to bite back a laugh.

“We get it, Chong,” he said, coming to Sokka’s defense. “Your plans can change, and that’s okay.”

“Right on, brother,” Chong gave him a smile and… a fist bump. Zuko knocked against it cautiously before dropping his hand back down to his side.

“Right on, Hotman,” Aang agreed, popping up next to Katara. “I don’t know what you were talking about, but right on.”

Zuko was so relieved that Aang and Katara had gotten out of the tunnels safely, he figured Aang could have this one. Just once.

“Right on, indeed, little arrowhead,” Lily gave Aang a kiss on the cheek, and he giggled. Moku presented the Avatar, the Spirit Bridge, the Keeper of the Balance, with a flute he must have picked out of his bags.

“Wow,” Aang breathed, taking it with reverent hands. “This is _amazing!_ ”

Zuko bet Aang wasn’t going wash _that_ prized possession away in an ill-advised attempt at power bending, he thought grumpily to himself.

“Just play your songs,” Sokka groaned.

“Hey!” Chong brightened up. “Good plan!”

Nothing seemed to get Chong down, Zuko observed with some form of grudging admiration.

“Even if you're lost, you can't lose the love because it's in your heart. Da, da, da…”

As Sokka muttered something about _soft rocks were better than these rocks_ and set off walking, Momo landed on his shoulder and offered him a lychee nut. Sokka jerked away, so Momo had to jump off and flap his wings to fly on ahead and alight in a tree, where he mashed the lychee nut into his mouth and started chewing on it himself.

Zuko thought that was fair enough, all things considered.

“How’d you end up with the badgermoles, Zuko?” Aang asked. “Did you ask if you could ride them? Do you think they’d let _me_ ride them?” His eyes went wide. “Oh, man, that’d be so _cool_ …”

Zuko recognized that look. If they didn’t head Aang off early, he’d want to go right back into the tunnels to find a badgermole and ride it. He probably wouldn’t even have to ride it _blindfolded_ , it had been so dark in there.

“It’s not that interesting, Aang,” he said quickly. “We just wandered round for a bit, but then we found the badgermoles. Not that exciting, really.”

“Yeah,” Aang conceded. “We kind of wandered around for a bit, too, until our torch went out.”

Zuko looked at him in horror. “Your torch _died?_ ”

“It’s okay,” Katara reassured him. “We made it out, we’re fine –”

“I can see that!” He tried not to shout at her. They’d _all_ had a stressful experience. He took a few breaths before he tried again, making a conscious effort to soften his voice. “So how did you get through the caves?”

Katara went a bit red, which was kind of weird. “Um. We just let love lead the way, you know?”

“Yeah,” Aang agreed. “So we found Oma and Shu’s tomb, right – you know, the two lovers? And there were two statues, and they were _kissing,_ and Katara said she had this crazy idea, and I was all, like, ‘It can’t be that crazy’, and Katara told me her idea, and it was –”

“We just got kind of lucky,” Katara cut him off, which Zuko was a little grateful for. He’d been getting a headache trying to keep up with that barrage of new and fantastical information.

“I don’t believe in luck,” he said reflexively.

“That’s what you said the other day,” Aang remembered, giving him a wide grin. “You don’t believe in luck. But you know a lot about the journey.”

Zuko managed to give Aang a small smile of his own. “Right. The journey.”

“Well, the _journey_ was long and annoying,” Sokka declared, interrupting their moment. “But now, you get to see what it's really about. The _destination_.”

He flung his hands out as they joined him on the edge of the cliff face. “I present to you the Earth Kingdom city of O-o-oh, _slush_.”

“I don’t think that’s Earth Kingdom,” Zuko managed faintly, looking out at the Fire Nation flag emblazoned above the city entrance.

 _Agni damn it all_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'That cloud looks just like a kitten' - _Surf's Up_ (2007).  
> [Here's a link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOm4zxxEVsY&t=1s) to some of Chicken Joe's best bits, just because.


	6. Chapter 6

When Aang had seen the Fire Nation flag hanging on the city walls, he hadn’t been able to believe it. He’d known that the War had spread far, but Omashu had always seemed so untouchable. Now Sokka and Zuko were talking about how the only big place in the Earth Kingdom that the Fire Nation hadn’t apparently taken over was Ba Sing Se.

“We should probably head there to find an earthbending teacher,” Zuko said.

“What?” Aang couldn’t believe it. “No way, Zuko! I’m not going until I know that Bumi’s okay!”

“I know you had your heart set on Bumi,” Katara said sympathetically. “But there are other people who can teach you earthbending.”

What? No! Katara had gotten to go to the North Pole to learn from a master, even though it was on the complete other side of the world! Aang wanted to learn from Bumi, and they were _right there_ at Omashu’s city gates, so that was way closer than Ba Sing Se or the North Pole. And this wasn’t even about bending!

“This isn't about finding a teacher!” Aang told her. “This is about finding my friend!”

Sokka spread his arms. “Aang, seriously. The Fire Nation are after you. How are you going to get in there? Are you just going to walk up to the city gates and ask nicely?”

“There’s a secret tunnel below the entrance to the city,” Zuko said.

Aang frowned. He’d thought he and Bumi were the only ones who knew about that entrance!

“A secret tunnel?” Sokka repeated, turning to face Zuko. “Are you _messing_ with me?”

“Maybe Bumi’s got a sense of humor,” Katara offered.

“He does!” Aang agreed. Bumi was the funniest guy he knew!

“Sure he does,” Zuko grumbled. “The first time Uncle and I came here, he trapped us in jennamite. It took us _ages_ to get out using our firebending.”

Sokka sighed and closed his eyes. He even held up his hand and counted to five on his fingers before he opened them again.

“I’m gonna kill that kooky old bastard,” he muttered.

“No!” Aang jumped up. If Sokka tried to harm Bumi, Aang would – he’d…

“Sokka was joking, Aang,” Katara put her hand on his shoulder. “You _were_ just kidding, right, Sokka?”

“Yeah,” Sokka nodded a bit quickly. “Yeah, no killing going on here! No need for that Avatar State stuff, buddy.”

_Oh, right_ , Aang remembered. Yeah, he didn’t want to go into the Avatar State in Omashu. He’d probably cause a lot of damage to the city. But Bumi might find that kind of funny.

“Let’s get to the entrance,” Zuko decided. “We’ll figure it out.”

Sokka was complaining about how they hadn’t used the secret entrance to Omashu the last time they’d been there, but Aang was a little disappointed they were having to use it this time. Not just because the Fire Nation had taken over the city, although there was that – but because he’d wanted to be Bonzu Pippinpaddleopsicopolis III again. This time, he had been planning on being a baker from the southern Earth Kingdom who had sold his bakery to follow his dream of being a travelling bard.

“Why didn't we just use this last time?” Sokka asked as Aang opened the secret entrance to the tunnel – oh, _ewwwwww!!!!_

Aang had completely forgotten that this was a sewage tunnel!

“That answers that question,” Katara mumbled, pinching her nose and breathing deeply through her mouth.

Sokka turned a really weird shade of green and turned to Zuko.

“I hate you,” he said. “If I could stick you in a cave for the rest of time, I wouldn’t even hesitate. I hate you so much right now.”

All that brown stuff _did_ look pretty nasty, Aang had to admit. “Katara and I can try and keep it away from us,” he offered. “I can airbend it, and Katara can waterbend it.”

“Aang’s right,” Katara agreed. “See, Sokka? It’s not such a crazy idea after all.”

Katara’s ideas could be pretty crazy, but Aang liked them, too. He blushed as he remembered how she’d kissed him!

Zuko grimaced and stripped off his outer layer. “Can you take this, Katara?”

“Um,” she looked down at his shirt. “Why?”

“Because even if you bend the worst of the sewage away, some might still get on me,” Zuko explained.

Aang thought that was actually a pretty good idea. He turned to Sokka. “Do you want me to take yours, Sokka?”

“I actually want you to pick _any_ other way of getting into that city, Aang,” Sokka replied bluntly.

“I’m not sure there _is_ one,” Aang admitted. He turned back to the entrance and stepped forward into it. _Gross_.

“Hold on a minute, Aang,” Katara requested. She tied the arms of Zuko’s shirt a little more snugly around her waist and nodded in satisfaction before stepping in behind him. “Okay. Let’s go.”

“Everyone ready?” Zuko asked, stepping in behind Katara.

“ _No_.”

“Fuck off, Sokka –”

“Hey, I’ll stop bending this stuff if you keep saying that to him, Zuko!”

“Katara, I’m your big brother, and I’m ordering you –”

“Oh, you’re _what_ now, Sokka?”

“Begging! I’m _begging_ you, Katara, _do not stop bending this sh_ –”

“Guys!” Aang didn’t mean to snap, but he was getting worried about Bumi! “We need to get into Omashu, and we don’t have time to stand around talking!”

There was a bit of a silence, and Aang was about to apologize for yelling before Sokka spoke up.

“I wish Hahn and Zhao were here.”

Aang wasn’t sure why Sokka wanted Hahn and Zhao around, but he didn’t have time to waste. Bumi needed his help!

As Aang airbent most of the sludge out of the way, he could hear Zuko and Sokka muttering to each other a little further back, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying, even when he was airbending. Zuko had a flame in his hand, so they might have been using it to make rude gestures at each other. Katara was being really quiet, too.

When she had kissed him, Aang had been so surprised that he hadn’t even known what to do! He’d wanted her to do it again so he could figure out how his mouth was supposed to work, but then the crystals had started glowing.

Katara had been so happy to know where the exit was, and Aang hadn’t been brave enough to ask her if they could kiss again when he could see her, because she was so pretty that he kind of got all embarrassed and awkward. And this tunnel wasn’t quite so nice, and Zuko and Sokka were _right there_ , so there was no way he was going to ask her if they could kiss again right now.

…

It was truly incredible, Sokka thought sourly to himself, how the universe just _loved_ proving him wrong. Every time he thought things had gotten to their worst possible conclusion, the spirits gave him a little nudge and a push, and he tumbled down a few more steps and landed in slime.

_Or_ he tumbled out of the slime into the middle of Omashu, and landed covered in pentapi.

And then, as if _that_ wasn’t enough, Fire Nation guards spotted them. Luckily, Katara’s quick thinking meant that they could slip away as if they were just ordinary kids out a little past curfew, but those gross little pentapi had left a bunch of spots and welts on Sokka’s neck.

“He has pentapox, sir,” Katara explained. “Um… it's highly contagious.”

“Oh, it's so awful,” Sokka said, trying to sound convincingly like a diseased piece of crap. He put on a bit of a throaty rasp and pictured Hahn with a wheat stalk in his mouth.

“I'm dying,” he added for emphasis.

“Hey, I think I heard of pentapox,” one of the guards said to the other. “Didn't your cousin Chang die of it?”

The guard a step back. “We'd better go wash our hands,” they said, looking at Sokka with horror. It wasn’t a look he usually got from people. “And burn our clothes!”

Aang watched them go with a satisfied smile. “Thank you, sewer friends,” he declared.

Sokka’s forehead was _really_ starting to hurt.

Aang and Katara were walking on ahead with a care in the world, but he and Zuko were dropping back a bit, and Zuko hissed and put his hood up as a young woman walked by with an armed guard. The Fire Nation was no joke. But it wasn’t the Fire Nation that made boulders drop down onto the streets with intent to cause grievous harm to passers-by, Sokka thought. Dad had _never_ attacked civilians.

Luckily, Aang was there to blast the rock out of the way before it made a Fire Nation paste on the streets of the city. But clearly even Fire Nation civilians didn’t have much love for the Avatar, because that girl launched a whole load of little arrow things at Aang.

“Run!” Zuko shouted, shoving Sokka forward and hurrying Katara along. She managed to get one good old-fashioned water whip in on a couple of the guards before they were running.

They had to take a few hard turns, but Sokka didn’t know Omashu’s streets that well. Thank slush Zuko seemed to know where he was going. He managed to steer them away from the killer Fire Nation girl and her guards, and Sokka thought they’d been able to lose them when Aang joined them.

Then the ground gave way below them, and they tumbled down into the earth, where resistance fighters picked them up and let them into an underground cavern. Aang was talking with this guy named Yung, and he seemed really interested to know about what had happened when the Fire Nation had taken over.

“Is King Bumi with you guys?” Aang asked eagerly. “Is he leading the resistance?”

“The resistance is probably better off if he _isn’t_ ,” Zuko muttered. Sokka had to bite back his agreement.

Yung seemed to agree with their assessment, because he angrily told Aang that not only had Bumi _not_ led the resistance – he hadn’t even bothered resisting the Fire Nation! He’d just _surrendered_.

“Without a fight?” Zuko asked, looking confused. “But that’s – what?”

“It doesn't matter now,” Yung shook his head brusquely. “Fighting the Fire Nation is the only path to freedom. And freedom is worth dying for.”

Now _that_ , Sokka could agree with.

“Actually, there's another path to freedom,” Aang pointed out. “You could leave Omashu. You're directing all your energy to fight the Fire Nation, but you're outnumbered. You can't win. Now's the time to retreat, so you can live to fight another day.”

Yung scowled. “You don't understand. They've taken our home, and we have to fight them at any cost!”

“General Sun wrote that all warfare is based upon deception,” Zuko answered, folding his arms. “If you can make the Fire Nation think you’re running, you can strike when they least expect it.”

“And there’s hundreds of civilians here,” Sokka added. “ _Thousands_. You can’t have them staying down here while you fight. You need to get them to safety.”

Yung seemed to consider it. “Fine. But there's thousands of citizens that need to leave. How're we going to get them all out?”

Sokka gave Yung a confident smile as he unveiled his plan. “ _Suckers_.”

There was a brief silence, until Zuko broke it with a flat “What?”

Sokka sighed. It seemed that it was the mark of genius to never be understood. “You're all about to come down with a nasty case of pentapox,” he explained.

Katara helped bend a whole load of sewage water their way, which was super gross, but at least had tons of pentapi for them to use. They made themselves busy with helping people stick pentapi all over their skin, and leaving ink, spots, welts, and even a bruise in Zuko’s case, where Aang was a bit enthusiastic in smashing a pentapi against his neck.

Pretty soon, they were ready to make a break for it.

“The marks make you look sick,” Sokka explained to the gathered crowd. “But you’ve got to act sick, too. You’ve got to sell it!”

He pointed at an old guy as he hobbled along on his cane. “Now _that's_ what I'm talking about!”

“Years of practice,” the old man chuckled.

Sokka hobbled along with Zuko at the top of the crowd of people. He’d pulled his hood back over his head to hide his burn scar, and Sokka couldn’t blame him. If he got found in a city under Fire Nation control, that… would be bad. Speaking of –

“Where’s Aang?” Zuko hissed at Katara as she joined them.

“He went to find Bumi,” Katara replied.

“And you just let him go off?” Zuko asked disbelievingly.

Katara scowled at him. “Well, _you_ know how he gets when he gets in a mood –”

Zuko groaned. “You can’t just let him go off and do whatever he wants –”

“Hey, don’t act like I’m the bad guy here –”

“Guys!” Sokka hissed. “Less arguing, more illness!”

At least when Sokka was the plan guy, the plan worked. The Fire Nation soldiers _freaked_ when they saw that the whole city had gone down with deadly pentapi, and they couldn’t get them to leave quick enough!

If you wanted something done, Sokka thought smugly to himself, you got a Water Tribe genius to do it.

But then Aang joined them at the campsite they’d set up in the mountains around Omashu. He hadn’t brought Bumi, but what he had brought back made Sokka and Zuko both swear loudly enough to make Katara hit them _twice each_ with a water whip.

Aang had kidnapped a baby!

…

“I didn’t mean to!” Aang protested. “I blame Momo!”

“You can blame Momo for a _lot_ of things, Aang,” Sokka squawked, running his hands through his hair. “But you can’t blame him for _kidnapping a baby!_ ”

Aang pointed at where the little kid was stumbling around with Momo. “Yeah, I can!”

Katara remembered that when she and Sokka had been sick in Taku, she’d asked Momo to bring them water and he’d brought back a dead mouse. She couldn’t really be too surprised that this had happened, with the benefit of hindsight.

“Momo and I split up to look for Bumi,” Aang continued. “And I guess he got confused.”

“I’m confused, too,” Sokka said. “I’m confused as to how we’ve managed to kidnap a baby.”

“Well, Zuko got kidnapped,” Katara reminded him. “Maybe this is just… the universe readdressing the balance?”

“I hate the universe,” Sokka complained. “And, no offense, Aang, but I’m really not keen on the balance right now.”

Aang looked a little sad, but Zuko nudged him.

“Don’t feel bad,” he consoled the Avatar. “I don’t think the universe is very keen on Sokka.”

“That’s right,” Katara agreed, trying to cheer Aang up. “He _did_ get covered in pentapi.”

That, at least, made Aang smile. He’d been so disappointed to find that Bumi was missing, and Katara was pleased to see that it wasn’t getting him down.

Momo let out a cry and flew up into the sky, out of the way of the little baby, who fell down right next to Sokka's club. He looked at it like it was the most amazing thing in the world, just like Sokka, and then picked it up and started to suck on it. Katara couldn’t remember Sokka doing that when they was little, but he probably had done.

“No!” Sokka snatched the club out of the baby's chubby hands. “Bad Fire Nation baby!”

The baby began to cry, and something tugged on Katara’s heart as she saw him reach out for the club Sokka was holding up.

“Oh, _Sokka_ ,” she sighed, patting his face a little roughly before putting her hands on her hips. “It’s a _baby_. Don’t be like that.”

Sokka looked like he was going to argue – he was certainly holding onto the club pretty tightly – but she gave him her best _Unimpressed Gran-Gran_ look, and he wilted.

“Alright,” he grumbled, handing the club back to the baby. The little boy immediately stopped crying and instead began to coo happily as he played with it.

“Aww,” Katara smiled as she hugged him from behind. She couldn’t help kissing him on the cheek. “Oooh, you're so _cute!_ ”

She could hear Sokka complaining whilst Aang and Zuko snickered.

“Sure, he's cute now,” that resistance fighter Yung muttered darkly. “But when he's older, he'll join the Fire Nation army. You won't think he's so cute then. He'll be a killer.”

Katara looked down at the baby, with his chubby cheeks and messy dark hair and golden eyes. Would he grow up to be evil? She remembered what Jeong Jeong had told her when he had found her, after Aang had accidentally burned her and she had discovered she could heal herself.

_Not every child of the Fire Nation is evil, Miss Katara_.

_No_ , she thought to herself. Not everyone in the Fire Nation was born a monster.

She looked over at Zuko. He was a firebender, and from the Fire Nation, but he was still a good person. Maybe this baby would grow up to be like him. She still had his shirt tied around her waist – she should probably give it back to him, but when in need…

She undid the knot she’d tied, and carefully swaddled the baby up in the shirt like a small blanket, before picking him up and showing him to Yung.

“Does that look like the face of a killer to you?” She demanded.

Before Yung could respond, they were interrupted by the sound of beating wings. A bird shrieked out as it landed on a nearby rock, and Katara instinctively pulled the baby closer to her body to protect them.

“A messenger hawk,” Zuko examined it. “And there’s a letter.”

As Sokka fed the hawk a piece of some unidentified meat, Aang unrolled the scroll. “It's from the Fire Nation governor,” he announced. “He thinks we kidnapped his son.”

“Great,” Zuko muttered. “Nice work, Sokka.”

“Why’re you blaming me?” Sokka asked indignantly.

“It was your dumb plan to leave the city. Now they think we left the city with the baby!”

“Oh, fuck off, Zuko –”

Katara set the baby on her knee and covered his ears with her hands. Sokka winced, and Zuko cut himself off with a frustrated grimace. She decided that she had made her point, and bounced the baby up and down a few times.

“When you’re not watching,” she promised the baby, “I’m gonna give your Uncle Sokka a _stern_ talking to.”

The baby burbled, and she giggled. “Yeah, he _is_ , isn’t he?”

“The governor wants to make a trade,” Aang spoke again, looking up from the scroll. “His son for King Bumi.”

Zuko frowned. “That’s a crazy deal. Who’s the governor?”

Aang quickly checked the bottom of the letter. “Governor Ukano.”

“You probably shouldn’t come with us,” Sokka said, glancing at Zuko.

He bit his lip. “Yeah. Guess not.”

The baby coughed, and began to wail. Katara tried to shush him, but he seemed insistent on making a noise.

“Aang,” she requested. “Give me something he can play with, please?”

Aang looked a bit surprised to be put on the spot, but he patted his pockets down until his face brightened up. “How about this?”

“Perfect,” Katara smiled, taking the bison whistle from him and tucking it into the baby’s hands. His wailing died down, and she couldn’t help but melt a little at the way he cooed and sucked on the bison whistle.

“Don’t get too attached to him, Katara,” Sokka told her, tossing another piece of meat to the messenger hawk. “We’re giving him back tomorrow.”

Katara scowled at her idiot of a big brother. “I’m not getting attached,” she told him. “I’m just a human being with _emotions_ , Sokka.”

“Girly emotions,” he muttered.

“Emotional depth is not exclusively a feminine trait,” she retorted, getting to her feet and walking over to where Zuko and Aang were writing out a reply to the governor.

Zuko looked a bit alarmed as she held the baby out to him. “Uh, Katara –”

“Help me prove Sokka wrong,” she requested, knowing it would be an excellent motivation.

Zuko looked awfully nervous as she settled the baby in his arms, but he seemed to relax as the child prodded at his shoulder and grabbed at his shirt. He prodded the baby gently in the stomach, and smiled a little when they giggled.

Katara gave Sokka a triumphant smirk and folded her arms.

“That’s just the two kidnapped kids bonding,” Sokka protested. “That doesn’t count!”

She had to laugh at how Zuko so clearly wanted to tell Sokka what to do, but he couldn’t really swear with a baby in his arms. Otherwise, Katara would have gotten the frying pan out again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ‘All warfare is based on deception.’ – [Sun Tzu](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu#Chapter_1_%C2%B7_Detail_Assessment_and_Planning).
> 
> This chapter marks the Gaang’s return to Omashu; I wrote about Zuko’s return to the _Wani_ in [Chapter Six](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29029698/chapters/73654860) of my prequel fic, ‘The Blue Spirit: Year One’.


	7. Chapter 7

Sokka still wasn’t quite sure how this had happened. They’d done everything right; they’d faked a deadly illness, they’d gotten out of the city, they’d managed to get to the mountains – and now, because of Momo, they were going right back into Omashu!

Fucking _Momo_.

“Why can’t things in Omashu ever be simple?” He implored the universe, but he wasn’t sure why he was asking. The universe _hated_ him.

“Maybe we’re channeling Bumi’s essence,” Zuko theorized as he dumped dirt over the last embers of their campfire.

Sokka tried his best not to think about Bumi’s essence. _Gross_.

“Things never go to plan,” he grumbled to himself. “Why do things _never_ go to plan?”

“Plans change,” Zuko shrugged, dusting his hands down. “Better get on with it.”

“Is this why your Uncle says you never think things through?” Sokka accused him. “Because you don’t give a shit if they’ll work out or not?”

“I think Uncle just constantly doubts my intelligence,” Zuko said with a weird mixture of annoyance and fondness. Sokka thought he had that kind of relationship with Zuko as well.

“Probably because you manage to get yourself kidnapped all the time,” he suggested idly.

“Agni, will you _shut up_ about that?” Zuko muttered, stomping on the embers with a little more force than usual.

Sokka gave him a warning glance. “You’d better not be using language like that whilst we’re gone.”

As it had turned out, Zuko knew Governor Ukano and his family from back in the Fire Nation, so they’d all agreed that Zuko would be staying behind at the civilians’ camp, what with his being banished and all. Even if his brutally short hair _did_ make him look like a very different person, it was probably safer that way – unless he gave himself away with appeals to a Fire Nation spirit, like a moron.

Zuko did look around nervously, but it seemed like they hadn’t been overheard. He swallowed, and turned back to Sokka. “Just – be careful.”

“In, and out,” Sokka nodded. “Nice and easy.”

Zuko didn’t have to tell him twice to _be careful_. He was taking his baby sister and Aang into an occupied Fire Nation city in broad daylight. It wasn’t quite the same as _going to the Fire Nation_ , like they’d done on the Winter Solstice, but that had been at sundown, and although Sokka hadn’t exactly trusted Zuko back then, it had been good to have him around as backup. Now, though, they were going in blind, and trusting that they were going to get out okay.

If nothing else, Sokka was going to make sure that Katara and Aang got out okay.

“Anything I need to know about this Ukano dude?” He asked.

Zuko shook his head. “He’s loyal to my – to the Fire Lord.” He paused, but Sokka pretended not to notice the slip, and after a moment, he continued. “He was usually pretty uptight whenever I saw him. He’s ambitious. He and his wife, they – they believe in the Fire Lord’s idea of greatness. And honor.”

Sokka could probably guess what that meant. “So you don’t think they’re going to invite us in for tea and Pai Sho after we’re done with the trade?”

Zuko let out a short laugh that had absolutely no humor in it. “Just get in, and get out. Don’t let Aang run off.”

Zuko might have managed a small smile, but he still looked pretty tense. That was fine – Sokka was feeling pretty tense, too. He looked over as Katara and Aang came to join them. Katara was still carrying the baby, and Aang was spinning his staff around and whistling.

“You guys ready?” Sokka asked them. “Got what you need?”

Katara cocked her hip to show off her waterskin, before shifting her weight to rest the Fire Nation kid on her other side. The kid _did_ look cute, Sokka had to admit. Katara looked like she was having the time of her life, playing around with a little baby. If he turned out to be a firebender by accidentally blowing up a candle, she’d probably clap her hands and give him a mashed-up soft kale cookie, or something. Much nicer than the whack with a frying pan she’d given Zuko.

“All set, Sokka,” Aang nodded. He held up his staff and slung it across his shoulders before looping his arms over it. “And you’ve got what you need?”

Sokka had his brains, his biceps, and a burning desire to kick Bumi’s butt. He was getting that old guy back for all the grief he'd caused them, no doubt about it.

“Don’t worry about me, Aang,” he replied. “We’ve got this.”

It was Sokka’s job to worry about the kids, after all. His Dad had made him promise, and what was more, his Gran-Gran had made him promise to protect them. No _way_ was he going to break a promise to Gran-Gran.

If she’d found out he’d let the Fire Nation capture Aang in the middle of a hostage exchange, she’d never serve him the good five-flavor soup again. It would be salt, salt, salt, salt, and salt-flavored soup, he thought with a shudder. With _extra_ salt.

“Come on,” he said, hefting his boomerang in his hand and giving it a few practice swings for luck. “Sooner we’re there, the sooner we’re back.”

“With Bumi,” Aang agreed, looking happy at the thought. Zuko said something to Katara that Sokka couldn’t quite catch, and she said something back and laughed.

 _Whatever_. Sokka could stick his jawbone dagger up against the jerkbender’s throat later.

“Let’s go,” he said, turning on his heel and striding away. Aang hopped up onto Appa, and he hauled himself into the saddle before giving Katara a hand up.

“What did Zuko say to you?” He asked quietly.

Katara grinned. “He asked me to water whip Bumi for him.”

Sokka could get behind that idea, but he had another mental image. “You’re not going to use a frying pan?”

She shook her head. “I think that’s probably more effective on Zuko.”

“I’m not sure _anything’s_ effective on that guy,” Sokka sighed, shifting so he could call up to Aang. “You realize we're probably walking right into a trap?”

“I don't think so,” Aang called back. “I'm sure the governor wants his son back as much as we want Bumi.”

Katara smiled and tickled the baby under his chin, and he squealed and wriggled around.

“It's a new day,” Aang continued optimistically. “I have a good feeling about this!”

Sokka groaned. He’d been _having_ a great feeling, past tense.

“Aang, _why_ did you have to say that?”

…

Zuko was a doer. When he was nervous, or anxious, or feeling some strong emotional reaction, he _did_ something. It was what had made him stand up in that war meeting and say what had needed to be said, and it had been what had made him rush off to save Katara from the pirates when he’d realized they’d tried to take revenge over that waterbending scroll.

But now, he couldn’t _do_ anything. He couldn’t risk being recognized by Governor Ukano, _or_ by his daughter Mai. It had been three years since his banishment, and his hair had been cut short, but his face was pretty distinctive.

So instead of going off with Aang, Sokka, and Katara to exchange a baby for King Bumi – which was such a crazy deal that he wondered if _Bumi_ had come up with it – he was stuck here at the camp. It was like that period of time after Gaipan when he’d been injured, and incapable of doing anything.

All he could _really_ do was try and go over their supplies, but he’d done that already. He’d done the dishes after breakfast and found that dumb bison whistle of Aang’s lying on the ground. Someone must have dropped it last night, and his money was on Sokka or the baby, in that order.

“Lee? Is that you?”

Zuko gulped reflexively. “Who, me?”

He turned around to see an old lady standing a few feet away, accompanied by a young man who looked like he was only a few years older than Zuko. They looked familiar, but it took a little while for Zuko to place them.

“Qimei?” He asked tentatively. “And, uh – Jee?”

“Jié,” the man corrected him, and Zuko winced. “But, yes. It’s good to see you, Lee.”

“Nice to see you, too,” he said reflexively. “Uh – how have you been?”

As soon as he said it, he could have kicked himself. The Fire Nation had captured Omashu, and if Qimei and Jié were here, that meant they were amongst the refugees Sokka had managed to hustle out of the city. They probably hadn’t been _doing great_.

“We’ve had better days,” Qimei said with a delightfully understated approach. Uncle would have approved, Zuko thought. “But we’ve also had worse. It’s quite a surprise to see you back, though.”

“It’s not my fault,” Zuko hastened to explain and defend himself. “Avatar Aang wanted King Bumi to teach him earthbending, so we came here.”

“He might want to find another teacher,” Jié commented. “The King’s a bit occupied at the moment.”

“So’s the city,” Zuko said, in what he thought was a moment of supremely inspired wit.

Jié looked at him for a moment before slowly nodding his head. “Right,” he conceded. “The Fire Nation attacked the city about six weeks ago, and when King Bumi surrendered, Governor Ukano was installed pretty quickly.”

Mai was Ukano’s daughter, Zuko remembered from when he had been younger. She’d been about a year or so younger than him, and when he’d been nine, they’d had a pretend wedding officiated by a pretend Fire Sage in the palace gardens. Sokka had laughed himself hoarse when Ensign Takahashi had told him, Zuko recalled irritably.

“Ukano’s been pretty stern when he’s dealt with the uprisings,” Qimei took up the narrative. “Captain Yung has managed to keep the resistance fairly well hidden, but there have been a few close calls.”

“Like the assassination attempt that took place the other night?” Zuko asked dryly. The Dragon of the West had won his decisive victory at Tanggu by adopting the Earth Kingdom military maxim that _all warfare is based upon deception_ , but from what Zuko had seen so far of the Earth Kingdom’s military tactics, neither General Fong nor Captain Yung had been anything close to _subtle_.

“And a few others,” Jié added. “They’ve mainly been focusing on trying to prevent the Governor from using the mail chutes to ferry supplies around the city. Captain Yung’s a military man; he knows how important logistics can be.”

Lieutenant Jee would have approved, Zuko thought absently. Inasmuch as Jee ever approved of anything. Yung had struck him as an… abrasive man, for quite a few reasons – not least because of the way he’d seemingly been happy to damn a child simply for being born the way he was.

But Katara had been ready to challenge him on his assumptions, and she’d looked perfectly content to play with the baby and keep him entertained, even talking to him a little about the babies she had known and been taking care of at the South Pole up until a few months ago.

As Zuko had watched on, he couldn’t help but remember the way her blue eyes had been so full of fire when she had found out she was a firebender, and how the teasing smile she freely gave to Sokka and Aang had become a grimace whenever she had turned to him. He much preferred the way she had laughed when he’d asked her to use her water whip on Bumi.

 _After all the practice I did with you, I could use a new victim_ , she had replied.

He’d been about to suggest Sokka, but then they’d had to go off into the city to hand over the baby to –

He frowned. They were going to hand over the baby to…

“We got a letter from Governor Ukano telling us that he was willing to exchange King Bumi for his son,” he told Qimei and Jié. “But the letter didn’t say who’d be making the trade. Do you know who it’ll be?”

“Governor Ukano, I’d presume,” Jié responded. “Although there was that girl who arrived earlier.”

That would probably be Mai, Zuko supposed. He wasn’t sure if it was a good thing that she was getting a bit more political experience. She’d never seemed to enjoy it, but… people could change a lot in three years.

“Long dark hair?” Zuko asked, trying to picture what she’d look like now. “Dark red dress? Gloves and knives?” He smiled to himself as he remembered how good she’d been with her throwing knives.

“No,” Qimei shook her head. “Shorter hair, quite dark, very pale skin. She was wearing armor.”

Zuko frowned. That didn’t sound like Mai. That sounded more like…

 _Shit_.

“She had a friend with her,” Jié added. “Wore a lot of pink. Looked like she’d been at the _chi_ -enhancing tea.”

_Double shit._

“I’ve got to go,” Zuko managed.

_In and out, nice and easy…_

He was going to fucking _kill_ Sokka.

…

Aang hadn’t been sure where they had been meant to go in order to make the hostage exchange, but Sokka had said that they’d want it to be somewhere high up, so that if things turned to slush, as Sokka had put it, they could call Appa back and they wouldn’t have to run through loads of narrow city streets to find him.

It would also mean that if the Fire Nation planned on trying to capture them, it would take them a while to climb all the stairs to the flat platform Sokka had decided the exchange should take place on. Even though Appa had been really helpful and landed them nice and gently so they could step onto the scaffolding, Aang had still had to look over the edge of the platform and see how high up they were.

They were _really_ high up, and he had to hold on to the hat he was wearing to hide his identity as the Avatar to make sure it didn’t blow off. He could see three people making their way up the stairs, and although he was feeling pretty nervous when he first saw them, Aang was feeling _really_ nervous by the time they got to the top of the stairs.

“You should probably get your waterskin free,” Sokka said quietly to Katara. “Hand me the baby, sis.”

She looked down at the baby she was holding. “Um…”

Sokka huffed. “If Zuko can do it, _I_ can do it. Come on, give him here.”

Aang thought Sokka looked a bit silly with the baby drooling on his shirt, but Katara seemed happy enough to adjust his arms so he was holding the little boy. They had it covered, Aang thought, and he turned back to see who was coming to meet them. The girl in front looked super gloomy, with her mouth in this little downturned frown and her eyes looking like they were barely open – like she was so bored she was about to fall asleep! Aang thought she could do with some _chi_ -enhancing tea.

The two girls behind her were wearing really different outfits – one was wearing red and black, but one of them was dressed in bright pink, and even though that was kind of distracting, she seemed really happy to see them. She even gave Aang a little wave. He gave her a wave back, because it was only polite.

The last girl was looking at Aang kind of like he’d seen Momo look at lychee nuts, and how Sokka looked at most food. It was really weird. Maybe it was because Aang was a vegetarian, but he just didn’t think you were supposed to look at people like that.

Aang looked up to his right, where a big crane was lowering a metal box down to them. As it came closer and closer to the platform they were all standing on, Aang could see that it wasn’t just a box – it was a box with Bumi in it! And all Aang could see of his friend was his head!

He was _furious_. The Air Nomads believed that freedom was the whole philosophy of their element! Aang knew that Bumi wasn’t an airbender – obviously, that was why they had come back to Omashu in the first place – but even if he wasn’t trying to make people more like airbenders anymore, Aang still couldn’t believe the Fire Nation had been so cruel as to lock him up!

“Hi, everybody!” Bumi called out. He was wearing his big grin, and Aang felt himself relax a little bit. Bumi seemed to be okay, and if Bumi was okay with what was going on, Aang didn’t need to be mad.

The girl in front looked at Aang, and he felt like she was really annoyed with him.

“You brought my brother?” She asked.

 _Oops_. Aang hadn’t realized the baby had a family. Well, he _had_ , because it was the governor’s child, obviously. But he’d kind of stopped thinking in shock once he’d realized they’d accidentally kidnapped a baby.

“He's here,” he answered. “We're ready to trade.”

The girl wearing red and black cleared her throat and turned to the gloomy girl. “I'm sorry, but a thought just occurred to me,” she said. She had a really clear, sweet voice. “Do you mind?”

“Of course not, Princess Azula,” the gloomy girl said.

Huh? They were dealing with a Princess?

The princess stepped forward and tapped her fingers against her chin like Zuko did when he was thinking out loud and being sarcastic. “We're trading a two-year-old for a king,” she said, looking up at Bumi. “A powerful, earthbending king.”

 _She was right_ , Aang thought proudly. _His friend Bumi_ was _a powerful earthbender!_

Bumi nodded happily too. “Mm-hm!”

The princess sighed. “It just doesn't seem like a fair trade, does it?”

Huh?

The gloomy girl looked hard at her little brother. Sokka looked a bit uncomfortable with the attention, but the baby seemed pretty happy to keep drooling over his shoulder.

“You're right,” the girl said suddenly. “The deal's off.”

She held up her hand, and there was a grinding noise. The chains around Bumi’s metal box went taut, and he began to rise into the air.

“Whoa!” He laughed and snorted like this was the best thing in the world. “See you all later!”

“Bumi!” Aang shouted. This was in no way the best thing in the world!

He wasn’t going to let them take his friend away! He ran forward with his glider, but the princess blocked him with her firebending.

_Wait a minute!_

That wasn’t just firebending! That was blue firebending!

Aang had never _seen_ blue fire before! That had to be cheating!

He had to avoid being burned by jumping up high and giving himself a boost with his airbending. He landed halfway up the scaffolding, and leapt up again, opening his glider to soar away. Now, this was airbending! The element of freedom, where you could leave it all behind…

His hat got left behind in the wind, and his tattoos were freely displayed for everyone to see. Aang had to snatch onto his hat with his teeth.

 _Oops_.

“Monkeyfeathers,” he muttered. But he was still chewing on his hat, so it came out as _mukipphr_.

This would be the perfect time for Aang to say a swear word without Katara getting mad at him, and he’d been about to be really brave and say one of Sokka’s favorites.

“The Avatar!” The princess exclaimed.

Then again, he supposed that _monkeyfeathers_ was a classic for a reason.


	8. Chapter 8

As Katara saw Aang sprint off after Bumi, she heard Sokka swear loudly and say something about _Bumi_ and _plans_ , but she was a little too busy to worry about either of those things.

Aang was going after Bumi, and the girl who’d taken control of the exchange – the _princess?_ – was chasing after him, but Katara and Sokka had a problem of their own to deal with. The two other girls were charging towards them, and Katara prepared herself to hold them off.

“We've got to get the baby out of here!” She shouted to Sokka.

Sokka was silent for a moment before he coughed. “Uh…”

Katara did _not_ like the sound of that.

“What are you waiting for?” She demanded. “Call for Appa!”

She tried to send her water whip at the gloomy girl from a distance, but she had to quickly dodge as a small, sharp object came whizzing towards her at speed.

“About that,” her brother laughed nervously. “You know how Aang asked if I had what I needed, earlier?”

 _Oh, slush and cinders_. “You _lost_ the whistle?”

“I didn’t lose it!” Sokka defended himself. “Aang did!”

“Oh, because _that’s_ the important thing here,” she snapped back at him. “Get him out of here!”

Sokka turned and bolted for the edge of the platform, and Katara had been just about to turn back to the onrushing girl, but she shouted in shock as something blasted through the wooden boards of their platform and sent Sokka tumbling. She screamed and chased after him and the baby as they skidded along the floor, but they came to a halt a few inches short of the edge.

 _That’s a long drop_ , she realized faintly. _And why isn’t he getting up?_

She turned back around to see the dark-haired girl coming after her. She threw something at Katara – no, _multiple_ somethings – and Katara had to reach out and pull one of the wooden boards towards her with her water to try and block them. She heard a barrage of _thuds_ , and the sharp tip of a knife came through the board and stopped just inches from her face.

Katara gritted her teeth. Sokka was counting on her, and so was a child.

She _protected_ the people she cared about!

She used her water whip to lash the wooden board back at the girl, and turned around to see the pink girl walking towards Sokka. He managed to prop himself up, but he was moving slowly. Katara bent the water out towards the girl and wrapped it round her ankle, and she fell to the ground with a cry.

 _That should give Sokka time to get out of here_ , she thought, turning back towards the knife girl. She tried to get her with some water whips, but when the other girl managed to somehow fire some knives back at her from her leg, she had to freeze her water and save herself with an ice wall.

This girl was dangerous, Katara realized, as she tried to defend herself. Suki had tried to teach her some hand-to-hand fighting moves, but Katara had wanted to spend her time on Kyoshi focusing on her bending, and so she hadn’t been the most enthusiastic student. This girl clearly knew how to fight, and Katara had to freeze ice around her right arm to prevent her from attacking Katara.

Katara felt three quick jabs on her right arm, and she groaned as she stumbled backwards. The pink girl finished her attack with a spin and stepped back to join the knife girl looking at Katara.

She’d lost control of her water with the surprise attack, but that wouldn’t stop her. Now she could just strike out at them both at the same time. Katara gritted her teeth, and reached out for the water, and –

and –

_What?_

She pulled on the water again, but it didn’t respond.

_She couldn’t feel anything._

“How are you going to fight without your bending?” The gloomy girl taunted her.

_Without her bending?_

She couldn’t feel the water!

It was like the North Pole all over again, Katara realized with horror. She was trapped, and the Fire Nation was here, and she couldn’t protect Sokka – she couldn’t protect the people she cared about –

The girl pulled out a knife from her robe, and Katara could only watch as she drew her arm back.

As she swept her arm around, Katara’s last thought was that maybe they’d spare Sokka, now they had her.

 _I’m sorry, Mom_.

Suddenly, a dark blur flashed in front of her, and she heard a _thwack_ and a high-pitched noise of pain.

_What?_

The knife girl was clutching her hand, and her knife was lying on the floor. The pink girl let out an indignant noise, but a familiar figure in dark clothes dodged her punch, and –

Did the Blue Spirit just swing a _bucket_ at her head?

As the pink girl staggered away, the girl with the knives made another attempt at fighting the Blue Spirit, but he blocked her strike and jabbed out at her with a fist. The dark-haired girl had to jump backwards to avoid a low, sweeping kick and Katara realized that she wasn’t doing _anything_ as the two dark figures fought back and forth.

She ran over to where Sokka was lying in a sprawl of limbs on the side of the platform. The baby was all right, she saw with relief. He was babbling and patting at Sokka’s face with sticky fingers. Sokka just looked resigned.

“Great news, sis,” he greeted her. “Turns out I’ve got the bison whistle right here!”

He jerked his head to where it was lying on the platform. It must have fallen out of his pocket when that pink girl had done – whatever she’d done.

 _Katara couldn’t bend_.

“Are you okay?” She asked frantically. “Is the baby okay?”

“Doing great,” he reassured her. “We’re doing great, we’re doing fine – but, seriously, Katara, blow the whistle, alright?”

 _Oh, right_. She picked up the whistle and blew it as hard as she could, hoping that Appa wasn’t too far away.

The bucket had rolled away from the pink girl’s head as she lay unconscious on the platform, and the knife girl was crouched down by her. The Blue Spirit was standing between them and Katara, Sokka, and the baby, and she could see the tension in his shoulders.

When Appa came swooping in from above with a roar, Katara had to haul Sokka into the saddle, and cradle the baby as she steered Appa away herself. When she looked back down at the platform, only the two Fire Nation girls were there.

…

Aang was busy trying to freeze the metal chain hoisting Bumi further up into the air, but it was kind of difficult when Bumi kept trying to distract him.

“Aang,” Bumi repeated. “Stop your blowing for a minute!”

Aang figured Bumi probably wanted to tell him a joke – he’d listen to it later, for sure. But right now, he couldn’t spare the breath to talk; he was busy trying to break his friend out of his cage!

This was sort of like that prison break Katara had organized, Aang thought absently. Back then, the Fire Nation had trapped a load of earthbenders like Bumi, and then the Blue Spirit had showed up, just like they were showing up now.

Wait, the Blue Spirit was here?

Aang was so distracted by the sudden appearance of the Blue Spirit that he let out an extra-cold burst of air in surprise, which seemed to do the trick in freezing the chain. He’d been about to figure out what he was going to do next when a big explosion had blasted out on top of the scaffolding Aang and Bumi were being winched up towards.

 _Uh-oh_. Aang hadn’t thought about what he was going to do next, and now he and Bumi were riding up towards an explosion, and they had a hundred-foot drop below them.

Maybe Sokka and Zuko were right, and he needed to work on his self-preservation skills a little bit.

The princess with the blue fire suddenly appeared and was free-falling through the air like an airbender, but then she kicked out and sent a _blue fire_ attack at Aang, and that sort of violence was _definitely_ not very airbender-like. Aang had to sweep the attack away with an air current that dispelled her fire and made it dissipate.

“Now,” Bumi began, but Aang had to break the frozen chain before that firebending girl broke it for them! “Now, hold on just a _gyaarrrghhh_ –”

Aang whooped out loud as they plummeted towards the ground. He had the fleeting thought that doing this blindfolded would be the coolest, deadliest thing _ever!_

He had to create an air cushion underneath them so they didn’t go _splat_ as they crashed into the mail chute, but then gravity sent them speeding down the chute at a higher speed than Aang had _ever_ been able to manage in a mail cart.

“It's just like old times, isn't it, Bumi?” Aang laughed, turning to his friend with a big smile.

“Aang!” Bumi repeated his name a few times to get his attention. “I need to talk to you!”

Aang had missed Bumi, and he was glad that his friend had missed him too. But they’d gone a hundred years without seeing each other – he wanted to see his friend as often as he could.

“It's good to see you too!” He told Bumi, making sure his mouth shaped the words clearly, but then something on his left caught his eye.

_Whoa!_

That blue fire princess was riding in her own mail cart!

She was cool _and_ deadly, Aang realized. Like Suki, although he wasn’t sure Suki would appreciate that as a compliment. He had to spin his staff around above his head to deflect the fire blasts the girl sent his way, but then the two mail chutes converged and became one, and suddenly she was right behind Aang and Bumi!

Aang tried to knock her away with an air gust, but she just knocked it away with her hands and sent a whole bunch of fire blasts. He had to duck and start waving his staff around to send air blasts behind him and Bumi to make them go faster, and some of them knocked down some arches to land on the tracks. The girl’s mail cart _crashed_ into them, and Aang winced. He’d had that kind of crash with Bumi the last time he was here, and it hadn’t been fun. Almost deadly, yes, and therefore very cool according to Sokka, but still not fun.

It looked like they’d lost her, he sighed with relief. The cart was empty. Oh, but then it _wasn’t_ , because she popped up again. She’d been hiding in the cart as it went along!

This girl was _all_ about cheating, Aang thought frustratedly. He was so relieved to see Appa suddenly flying overhead, he almost forgot to duck. _Blue fire_ came screaming over his head – if Aang had had hair, it would be on fire right about now!

“Hang on, Bumi!” He called. “Our ride's here!”

Aang tried to help Katara and Sokka pick up Bumi’s coffin by tipping it up against the side of the chute, but it kind of… didn’t work. He went a bit too fast, and they missed the coffin, and now Aang and Bumi were falling through the air.

_Ouch!_

They hit another chute and went _straight through it_ , making Aang’s knees give way. He sat down on his butt with a _thud_ , but their fall was broken by another chute, and then they were riding off again.

Aang took it back. He was never, ever doing this blindfolded.

And the girl with the blue fire was still after them! She’d made a whole whirling disk of blue fire, and she did what looked like an airbending move over it, like Aang did with his marbles – and then the fire seemed to grow even bigger and brighter, until it was almost white!

He yelled in shock as she sent the fire disk hurtling down behind them. It was going even faster than they were!

_Monkey-monkey-monkey-monkeyfeathers!_

Suddenly, Aang couldn’t see the spinning fire disk of doom anymore. All he could see was a pillar of earth that hadn’t been there three seconds ago.

Had _Bumi_ done that?

“You could earthbend all along?” Aang asked in disbelief.

“Well, they didn't cover my face,” Bumi explained.

Bumi really _was_ the greatest earthbender in the world, Aang realized. The only way he wouldn’t be able to earthbend was if you put a _blindfold_ on him. And Aang definitely wasn’t doing that – he’d learned his lesson about cool and deadly stuff.

Fire Nation princesses who bent _blue fire_ were definitely not cool.

…

Sokka was exceptionally pissed off at Bumi. Who in the entire _slush_ put him in charge of governing a city? Sokka didn’t _like_ the Fire Nation, but they might actually do a better job!

All that stress for nothing, he thought grumpily to himself as Appa arrived at their camp. When Aang had asked Bumi why he’d surrendered, Bumi had just said something about _jing_ and about how he needed to wait and do nothing until he heard the right moment. Sokka hadn’t thought that was a good answer for _warfare_ , but apparently, not only did Aang agree, but he also thought it applied to _bending!_

So not only had their trip to Omashu been a complete waste of time, because Bumi was too busy waiting and doing nothing, but now Aang had to find an earthbender who _listened_ and waited for the right moment.

“Your teacher will be someone who has mastered neutral jing,” Bumi had told Aang. “You need to find someone who waits and listens before striking.”

Sokka would have thought it extremely unlikely that anyone could match _The Dark Water Spirit is a friend of the Avatar_ for completely useless advice, but apparently Bumi could not only match his own masterpiece, but surpass it!

“Kooky old bastard,” he muttered to himself as Aang set Appa down and hopped off. Zuko was sitting in front of their tent.

 _Good_. Sokka needed to have another conversation with him.

“Zuko, you’ve gotta come help Sokka!” Aang chattered, loudly enough for Sokka to hear him. “The pink girl did something weird to him, and he can’t really move!”

 _This is humiliating_ , Sokka thought to himself, as Zuko’s head popped up over the edge of Appa’s saddle. _This is worse than a bunch of singing nomads seeing my underwear_.

“Hey, buddy,” Zuko drawled, raising his eyebrow. “How’d your plan go?”

“Fuck off, Zuko,” he groaned, before flinching. He’d been expecting a water whip from Katara, but she was just looking down at her hands with a blank expression on her face.

Zuko sucked in a breath. “I’m gonna sit you down against a bag, but you’ll be fine,” he told Sokka lowly. “Aang?”

“Yeah?” Aang looked up at them. “Is Sokka okay?”

“He’s fine,” Zuko said dismissively. “Can you get a fire going to make tea?”

“Sure!”

“Fine?” Sokka repeated disbelievingly. “I can’t move two limbs, Zuko! How is that _fine?_ ”

“It’ll wear off,” Zuko assured him. “Trust me.”

Sokka wanted to point out that Zuko had just saved him by dressing up in his secret identity, the very premise of which kind of strained the idea of _trust_ , but… yeah. The point was that Zuko had come to the rescue and bailed them out _again_ , so he guessed he could allow him that.

“Just don’t coddle me,” he grumbled as Zuko pulled him into his arms and pulled him down off Appa.

“What,” Zuko grunted, hefting him over to the firepit and settling him against a bag. “Did you want me to drop you?”

“Go get Katara,” Sokka requested, looking back up to where she was sitting in Appa’s saddle. “Something’s going on with her.”

Zuko nodded and clambered back up onto Appa as Aang got a fire going. Sokka thought Jeong Jeong had been teaching him firebending, but they must not have gotten that far, because Aang was using spark rocks. Zuko led Katara over to sit down next to Sokka, but she was wrapping her hands around herself and staring at the ground.

Sokka didn’t know _what_ had happened on that platform once he’d had two limbs turn to slush, but whatever it was, it had left Katara able-bodied. If she was freaking out more than he was, it was _bad_.

“Katara,” Zuko asked lowly, crouching down in front of Katara like she was a spooked polar bear dog. “You okay?”

Katara didn’t say anything, but she shook her head violently. Aang opened his mouth with a confused look on his face, but at least Sokka’s _neck_ wasn’t paralyzed, and he shook his head frantically at Aang.

He didn’t think his sister would want an audience for this.

“Can you tell me what’s going on?” Zuko asked softly.

“My bending,” Katara whispered.

“Something with your bending?”

“I can’t – I can’t feel the water,” his little sister was breathing a little too quickly for Sokka’s liking. “I can’t feel the water – I can’t feel my bending, _I can’t_ _bend_ –”

“You’ve been _chi_ -blocked, Katara,” Zuko told her, reaching out to gently cup her shoulders. “It’s just a technique. It blocks your _chi_ , but it wears off.”

“What?” Katara looked at him confusedly. “My _chi?_ ”

“You can’t bend right now,” Zuko carried on soothingly. “But it’ll come back. It’s not gone, Katara, okay?” He ducked to look her in the eye. “It’ll come back. Trust me.”

“It’ll come back?”

“It’ll come back,” Zuko repeated. “I promise, Katara.”

Suddenly, all the fight drained out of Katara, and she pitched forward to rest her head on Zuko’s shoulder with a deep, _deep_ exhale. Sokka remembered how freaked out she’d been when Aang had talked about how he couldn’t bend in the Spirit World, and how terrified she had been in the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole.

 _Tui and La_ , he realized, Katara must have been _terrified_.

“How do you know it’ll wear off?” He asked, trying to move the fingers on his left hand. He _thought_ he could feel a twitch, but he wasn’t sure.

“I know a _chi_ -blocker,” Zuko answered evenly, seemingly more comfortable with the conversation than with how Katara was leaning against him. “Her name’s Ty Lee. She was the pretend Fire Sage at my pretend wedding.”

“Your pretend wedding?” Aang asked. He seemed a little relieved that the conversation was taking a lighter turn, now that Katara was going to be okay. “When did _that_ happen, Hotman?”

“Couple of years ago,” Zuko replied, still keeping his voice level as he slowly ran his hands up and down Katara’s arms. He was probably trying not to spook her. “I was only nine.”

Sokka remembered Takahashi saying something about that wedding. A girl called Mai… who’d visited the palace and hung out with Taki… oh, _slush_ …

“The girl with the knives?” He blurted out. “So that girl with blue fire –”

“Princess Azula,” Aang said. “That girl with the knives called her Princess Azula.”

Zuko nodded grimly. “She’ll be after us, now,” he said, looking at Sokka.

The last time the Fire Nation had been after them, things had been… well, Sokka _still_ vividly remembered the Spirit Oasis.

“Please tell me Zhao’s better than her,” he blurted out.

Zuko didn’t reply, but he looked down at the ground. Sokka didn’t think that counted as an encouraging sign.

 _Monkeyfeathers_ , he thought faintly to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to read about how ~~Zuko learnt the hand-to-hand fighting skills he demonstrates here~~ Ensign Takahashi repeatedly kicked Zuko’s ass aboard the _Wani_ , check out [Chapter Seven](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29029698/chapters/73869816) of my prequel fic, ‘The Blue Spirit: Year One’.


End file.
